A mother-of-two who went into a 'trance-like' state whenever there was a full moon has been diagnosed with a rare mental health disorder. The woman would reportedly 'act strangely' during a full moon event, and start speaking in a different voice, sit unusually still and sob uncontrollably.
The episodes often began without warning, her family said, and would last up to two hours — with the woman appearing to be 'possessed'. The 55-year-old housewife, who was from India, was treated by local alternative medicine practitioners for seven years before finally being admitted to the hospital.
Doctors there ran tests on her liver, kidneys and brain, which all came back normal — but a psychiatric evaluation revealed she had been suffering from depression since her adolescence. She also told doctors she was suffering from low energy, feelings of hopelessness and social withdrawal. This, combined with her erratic behavior, led to a diagnosis of 'trance and possession disorder' (TPD) — a state of altered consciousness and inconsistent behavior — with dysthymia — a moderate form of depression.
The woman was started on anti-depressants, and she went to weekly psychotherapy sessions to help improve her symptoms. Over the next few months, her condition gradually improved and the periods where she appeared 'possessed' became less frequent. A woman in India who said she was 'possessed' was diagnosed with a mental health condition (stock image).
Revealing the case report in the journal Cureus, her doctors — from the Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education in Maharashtra, India — said: 'Psychotherapy played a crucial role in helping her understand the link between her depressive tendencies and trance episodes.
