Hyperreligiosity (also known as extreme religiosity) is a psychiatric disturbance in which a person experiences intense religious beliefs or episodes that interfere with normal functioning. Hyperreligiosity generally includes delusions and a focus on religious content or even atheistic content,
Signs and symptoms
Hyperreligiosity is characterized by an increased tendency to report supernatural or mystical experiences, spiritual delusions, rigid legalistic thoughts, and extravagant expression of piety.
Hyperreligiosity may also include religious
hallucinations. Hyperreligiosity can also be expressed as intense atheistic beliefs.
Pathophysiology and cause
Hyperreligiosity may be associated with epilepsy (in particular, temporal lobe epilepsy involving complex partial seizures),
bipolar disorder,
frontotemporal lobar degeneration, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis,
substance-induced psychosis,
and psychotic disorders more broadly. In those with seizure disorders, episodic hyperreligosity may occur during seizures
or
Postictal state but is usually a stable personality feature occurring interictally.
In a small study, hyperreligiosity was associated with decreased right
hippocampal volume relative to normo-religiosity.
Increased activity in the left
Temporal lobe has been associated with hyperreligiosity in psychotic disorders.
Pharmacological evidence points towards dysfunction in the ventral dopaminergic pathway as explanatory of hyperreligiosity.
Treatment
Epilepsy related cases may respond to
antiepileptics.
See also
-
Religious fundamentalism
-
Religious fanaticism
External links
