NEW DELHI: Twenty-four days after all efforts to trace him have failed, police now think that Najeeb Ahmed , a BSc student from Jawaharlal Nehru University, might have taken up an assumed identity and is living in a secluded place, probably a small town.Sources told TOI on Tuesday that the cops are relying on the opinion of doctors who say that depression and obsessive compulsive disorder may have led Ahmed, missing from the university since October 15, to distance himself from everyone, including his family members. Psychoanalysis of his personality has been carried out to infer where he might go in such a case.According to mental health experts, most patients suffering from these mental conditions could change their visual identity to take up the persona of an assumed character. They are capable of surviving for days without support from anyone.Based on this theory, police teams have been sent to verify inputs that a person resembling the missing student was recently seen in a small town in Darbhanga district in Bihar.TOI has accessed Ahmed’s medical prescriptions that confirm he was using medicines like Flunil and Lonazep. Mental health experts said that people who were prescribed these medicines suffered from dissociative reactive disorder, a condition in which a person started associating himself with a different identity.They often tended to separated themselves from even their families, and returned after the hullabaloo around them diminished, said the experts. At such times, they are unaware of the problems they create for their families by disappearing, but it is their way of shielding themselves from potential agony.According to doctors at VIMHANS, the 28-year-old student was depressed, was often a victim of negative thoughts and frequently unsure of what he would say or do. “He used to forget whatever he had studied,” disclosed a doctor. Since he hasn’t visited his physician after September 9, the experts fear that Ahmed’s condition could worsen. “He may be incapacitated into taking the worst steps if he doesn’t get to take his medicines for a long time,” a doctor who treated Ahmed told cops.According to psychologist Rajat Mitra, the JNU student might have been suffering for some time, but had kept his condition a secret from his parents. “A person might show different traits while suffering from such disorders, including being close to just one person in the family. His previous medical history should be scanned,” advised Mitra.