Tacrolimus is an immunosuppressive drug frequently used in solid organ transplant recipients. This drug has well-documented neuropsychiatric side effects in the literature, although emergence of psychotic symptoms is rare, being only described in a very few case reports. We present a case of a renal transplant recipient with no prior psychiatric history, who developed a severe psychosis secondary to supratherapeutic tacrolimus’ blood concentrations. This case highlights the importance of clinical awareness to rare but severe neuropsychiatric effects due to tacrolimus use.
Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) is characterized by episodic bursts of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, affecting chronic cannabis users. The clinical picture mimics an acute abdomen, usually leading to multiple assessments in the emergency department. Several complementary diagnostic examinations are performed with non-specific results, making differential diagnosis puzzling. We present a case of a 42-year-old man, who has been admitted multiple times to the emergency department in the last 3 months for abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, without triggering factors and improving only with hot water baths. He was evaluated by different specialties, the various complementary diagnostic tests performed showed no significant results, and no definitive diagnosis was obtained. Treatment resulted only in a partial and transient resolution of symptoms. A more detailed medical history revealed cannabis use for more than 5 years, with a recent increase in the amount consumed. After psychoeducation, explaining the risks associated with consumption and its relationship with the clinical symptoms, which resulted in complete suspension of cannabis, there have been no new symptomatic episodes since then. We present an illustrative case of a poorly reported clinical entity despite having a probable significant prevalence, raising awareness in order that clinicians identify and properly manage these cases.
Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited, progressive, and neurodegenerative neuropsychiatric disorder caused by the expansion of cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) trinucleotide in Interested Transcript (IT) 15 gene on chromosome 4. This pathology typically presents in individuals aged between 30 and 50 years and the age of onset is inversely correlated with the length of the CAG repeat expansion. It is characterized by chorea, cognitive deficits, and psychiatric symptoms. Usually the psychiatric disorders precede motor and cognitive impairment, Major Depressive Disorder and anxiety disorders being the most common presentations. We present a clinical case of a 65-year-old woman admitted to our Psychiatric Acute Unit. During the 6 years preceding the admission, the patient had clinical assessments made several times by different specialties that focused only on isolated symptoms, disregarding the syndrome as a whole. In the course of her last admission, the patient was referred to our Neuropsychiatric Team, which made the provisional diagnosis of late-onset Huntington's disease, later confirmed by genetic testing. This clinical vignette highlights the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to atypical clinical presentations and raises awareness for the relevance of investigating carefully motor symptoms in psychiatric patients.
BACKGROUND: Increasing consumption of psychoactive substances is a major social concern worldwide. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of psychoactive substances consumption in the Portuguese, lifetime and recently, the main reasons for the consumption and associated factors. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was based on the ASSIST applied to a sample of 385 Portuguese obtained for convenience. It was used descriptive statistics, the qui-square, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests, with a significance level of 5%. RESULTS: Alcohol was the most consumed throughout life (86%), followed by xanthines (79%) and tobacco (60%). In the last 3 months, xanthines (49%) were the most consumed daily, followed by tobacco (22%) and alcohol (9%). Socializing was the main reason for consumption of alcohol (67%), tobacco (36%) and cannabis (34%). Anxiolytics have been used to sleep (50%) and xanthines to increase cognitive capacity (35%). Tobacco (p = 0.016), alcohol (p = 0.03) and illicit substances (p < 0.001) were more consumed by men and anxiolytics by women (p = 0.027). Alcohol (p = 0.008), cannabis (p = 0.027), and xanthines (p = 0.009) were mostly consumed by young adults. CONCLUSIONS: The results reveal sporadic and recreational use of illicit substances, and regular use of alcohol, tobacco and xanthines, mostly by young adults and men, and anxiolytics by women. Socializing was the main reason for psychoactive substances consumption.
IntroductionNon-epileptic seizures (NES) are a diverse group of disorders, whose paroxysmal events can be mistaken for epilepsy, although they are caused by a mental or psychogenic process rather than a neurological cause.Objectives/methodsWe present a case of a 45-year-old female patient with history of generalized seizures prior to Meningioma resection in August 2015, referred to the Liaison Psychiatry outpatient follow up clinic at the Royal London Hospital after has gone several times to emergency department complaining about flush and hot sensation that proceeded to corners of mouth turning down, teeth chattering, shaking of left arm and torso at first and then legs. During the episodes, she was awake with no consciousness loss. Her mood was low, with clinical evidence of depression and she had very high levels of health anxiety.DiscussionA diagnosis of non-epileptic attacks was made in the sequence of those episodes. A holistic and multidisciplinary approach was made, including pharmacotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy and domiciliary support. The clinical response was good regarding both mood, anxiety levels and NES.ConclusionsApproximately 25% of patients who have a previous diagnosis of epilepsy and are not responding to drug therapy are found to be misdiagnosed and it is common that epileptic patients have both epileptic and non-epileptic seizures. Although distinguishing epileptic and non-epileptic seizures is not easy, there are some clinical clues that the physicians should look for, like age of onset, time of the day that episodes occur and presence or absence of postictal confusion.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
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