Over the last few years views on seven day working, weekend mortality, funding for the NHS and junior doctors contract have reflected this syndrome. This is very commonly seen amongst our policy makers, commissioners, decision makers, strategic consultants, the list goes on. A person with Diogenes syndrome has a disordered sense of reality, unreal perception of life and will engage in endless debates to justify his ideas and thoughts. Many years ago, clinicians would have fumed at the thought of admitting and treating patients in such places, but now we have accepted it as a norm and have learnt to be comfortable in these situations because we feel we have very little say or control over the current situation. This mayhem is seen across all the hospitals in the UK and is repeated every day. Even though the staff struggle to keep the place clean and tidy, it becomes an impossible task and the grim reality often hits the media. Elderly patients get stuck in trolleys and are unable to get up and walk even to the nearby toilet. One can see paperwork scattered everywhere, clinical notes in loose sheets, drugs charts in wrong places and misplaced results. Sick and medically unstable patients spend a lot of time in the ambulances parked outside the hospital, trolleys in emergency departments and corridors, observation units, waiting areas and treatment rooms. NHS Hospitals are overcrowded and we admit and treat patients in all sorts of inappropriate places. Despite living in inappropriate and unsanitary conditions, a person with Diogenes syndrome feel very comfortable in those situations. There are many similarities between the current NHS and Diogenes syndrome. A person with primary Diogenes syndrome is intelligent but aggressive, stubborn, suspicious, emotionally labile and has an unreal perception of life. The syndrome does not refer to the intelligence or the philosophies of Diogenes but rather refers to the way Diogenes lived. He lived in a squalor and rejected ideas of normal human decency.ĭiogenes syndrome is a disorder characterized by self-neglect, domestic squalor, apathy, compulsive hoarding of garbage and more importantly lack of shame.

He was a cynic and rejected many conventional ideas and lived in a large clay jar in the city of Athens. Tweets at was a controversial Greek philosopher who lived in the fourth century BC. Movement Disorders including ParkinsonsĪdhi (V Adhiyaman), geriatrician and Chair of Welsh council of the BGS.Grants, Fellowships and Research Proposals.Peri-operative care for surgical patients.

Diogenes syndrome in young adults