Posted by 8LenaK on March 13, 2015, at 1:46:37
In reply to Hyperfamiliarity for faces?, posted by uncouth on July 9, 2014, at 1:49:03
A little late, but just came across your post.
I developed the same condition or symptoms about two weeks into going on the anti-epilepsy drug topiramate for migraine prevention. It had already set in at a low 25 mg dose (therapeutic dosage was to be 100 mg).
The only other possibly related factor was experiencing an 11 day fairly severe status migraine right before going on the medication and another 22-day one around the time the hyperfamiliarity set.
I figured that either the topiramate (paradoxically) 'activated' an epilepsy-related area of the brain or the status migraines had some sort of almost stroke-like damaging element to them. I haven't had the opportunity to report this to a neurologist.
I agree with you that it's quite distressing. You find yourself very preoccupied with intensively racking your brains trying to figure out where you know someone from. Before I realized that I was experiencing some sort of distortion of perception, I had to restrain myself from going up to people and asking where I knew them from.
I hope that like me, your symptoms have subsided over time. Mine lasted a couple of months and diminished after going off topiramate (for other reasons). This was last year, but I still seem to experience it occasionally and possibly exacerbated by migraines.
poster:8LenaK
thread:1068108
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20150223/msgs/1077484.html