pica and Psychotic-Disorders

Topics: Achievement; Autistic Disorder; Behavior Therapy; Brain Damage, Chronic; Child; Child, Institutionalized; Child, Preschool; Counseling; Family; Humans; Hyperkinesis; Intellectual Disability; Intelligence; Language Disorders; Mental Disorders; Personality; Pica; Play Therapy; Psychotherapy; Psychotic Disorders; Social Isolation; Stereotyped Behavior; Temperament

Topics: Aggression; Animals; Animals, Zoo; Anorexia Nervosa; Anxiety; Behavior, Animal; Carnivora; Catatonia; Conditioning, Classical; Conflict, Psychological; Depression; Dogs; Encopresis; Enuresis; Frustration; Hominidae; Humans; Hyperesthesia; Hyperventilation; Hysteria; Mental Disorders; Motor Activity; Neurotic Disorders; Phobic Disorders; Pica; Psychopathology; Psychotic Disorders; Regression, Psychology; Schizophrenia; Sibling Relations

We aimed to further elucidate the under-researched, underdiagnosed and misunderstood comorbid pica in the context of psychosis.. We report a case of teen-onset plastophagia in an antipsychotic-naïve girl at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis.. HA is a 17-year-old unmarried girl who had a history of good premorbid functioning, no personal psychiatric history and an uncle with schizophrenia. She was referred to our psychiatry department with the complaint of having the habit of eating plastic for about 2 years. A thorough clinical history revealed that she developed, since more than a year, difficulty in school and interpersonal functioning. After clinical evaluation, a diagnosis of UHR with major depressive disorder, iron deficiency anaemia and pica was made.. We draw attention to the possibility of an overlap between the pathogenesis of pica and psychosis, and we highlight the importance of early diagnosis and management of both pica and UHR since they can lead to serious medical and mental consequences.

Topics: Adolescent; Antipsychotic Agents; Depressive Disorder, Major; Female; Humans; Pica; Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenia

Pica is the developmentally and culturally inappropriate eating of nonnutritive substances for at least 1 month. Herein, we present the case of a male patient that suddenly showed behavioral changes including aggressiveness, withdrawal, and perceptional disturbances at the age of 12. About 7 years later, pica symptoms emerged additionally. Neither pharmacotherapy nor electroconvulsive therapy led to success. Magnetic resonance imaging showed bilateral sclerosis of the hippocampus. The therapy with carbamazepine, clozapine, diazepam, and zinc finally improved the symptoms including the pica symptoms.

Topics: Adult; Brain Diseases; Hippocampus; Humans; Male; Pica; Psychotic Disorders; Sclerosis

Pica has rarely been reported in patients with geriatric mental illness. The authors describe 3 male patients with pica in the geriatric unit of a state mental hospital. Two of these patients had a diagnosis of developmental delay with concomitant diagnoses of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, respectively. The third patient was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. In all 3 cases, pica started late in life and was unrelenting and unresponsive to psychotropic medications, with limited to no response to behavioral interventions. In the 2 patients who died, pica was implicated as the direct cause of death in 1 and the likely cause of death in the other. When pica occurs in elderly patients with mental illness, the risk of mortality should be taken into account in clinical management.

Topics: Aged; Humans; Intellectual Disability; Male; Pica; Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenia, Paranoid

Pica is a pathologic craving for substances not commonly regarded as foods. In this study the authors report their experience about five cases presented with an acute abdomen following foreign bodies ingestion by patients mentally handicapped. Therapeutic treatment was emergency laparatomy with postoperative morbidity of 40% and mortality of 40%. It is hoped that specific drug therapy with more aggressive surgical treatment will reduce the mortality significantly.

Topics: Abdomen, Acute; Adolescent; Adult; Emergencies; Fatal Outcome; Female; Foreign Bodies; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Pica; Psychotic Disorders

Topics: Adult; Gastrointestinal Diseases; Humans; Institutionalization; Male; Middle Aged; Pica; Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenic Psychology

Visceral larva migrans, Entamoeba coli, evidence of latent toxoplasmosis and a history of plumbism were found in an emotionally disturbed, retarded child. Patients with pica should be screened for parasitism and other diseases transmitted orally.

Topics: Child; Diagnosis, Differential; Drug Hypersensitivity; Entamoebiasis; Eosinophilia; Humans; Intellectual Disability; Larva Migrans, Visceral; Lead Poisoning; Male; Pica; Psychotic Disorders

Children with severely atypical development often display pica, habitual mouthing, and odd food preferences as symptoms from the first year of life. Such children can ingest dangerous amounts of lead even in environments that are usually considered safe. Mean blood lead concentration was notably higher in 18 autistic children than in 16 nonautistic psychotic children or in ten normal siblings. Fifteen (44%) of the psychotic children (autistic and nonautistic) had blood lead levels greater than two standard deviations above the mean for normal controls. Behavioral and neurological sequelae of elevated blood lead level may be obscured in severely disorganized children. Screening for blood lead should be part of the medical care of these vulnerable children with pica.

Topics: Adolescent; Autistic Disorder; Cerebrospinal Fluid Proteins; Child; Child, Preschool; Dimercaprol; Edetic Acid; Female; Haloperidol; Hemoglobins; Humans; Lead; Lead Poisoning; Male; Pica; Psychotic Disorders