Neuropsychological and Pet Study of Depersonalization and Derealization: A Single Case Report

The present work depicts the case of a young man suffering from a depersonalization and derealization (DD) disorder, which mainly affects his own body. When the symptoms concern something else, they almost exclusively affect living beings. Neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric studies, as well as functional neuroanatomy studies, have led to hypothesize possible relationships among cognitive-neurofunctional alterations and symptoms of depersonalization and derealization. The present study suggests that a malfunction of the left frontal and prefrontal cortex causes deficits of working memory, producing some of the symptoms of DD.