Deja vu experiences in anxiety

Much research into deja vu uses questionnaires and an individual difference approach.  In this vein, we used an online questionnaire to examine deja vu experiences in people self-reporting a clinical diagnosis of anxiety and from age matched controls. Our reasoning was that anxiety can manifest as a dissociative experience - and so we hypothesised a higher level of deja vu in an anxious group.  Indeed, our Anxiety Group reported a higher frequency of déjà vu . This group also reported déjà vu as significantly more distressing and intrusive. The findings indicate that there are differences in déjà vu experienced by people reporting high levels of anxiety. In cases of anxiety and frequent déjà vu, high levels of dissociation may be an important distinguishing factor.