pica and Schizophrenia

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

Topics: Abdominal Pain; Bezoars; Dilatation, Pathologic; Foreign Bodies; Humans; Intestinal Obstruction; Male; Middle Aged; Pica; Schizophrenia

Topics: Adult; Antipsychotic Agents; Benzodiazepines; Humans; Male; Olanzapine; Pica; Schizophrenia

Acquired copper deficiency anemia is rare in humans. This report describes a 38-year-old schizophrenic man with metal pica, especially coins, who presented with symptomatic anemia. Two hundred seventy-five coins were surgically removed from the gastrointestinal tract of this patient during the course of his hospitalization. Some of the post-1981 pennies, which consist primarily of zinc, showed severe corrosion because of their prolonged contact with acidic gastric juice. The patient presented with clinical manifestations consistent with the local corrosive as well as the systemic effects of zinc intoxication. His treatment and outcome are presented. The effects of zinc intoxication on hematologic and other organ systems and on copper absorption are discussed.

Topics: Anemia; Copper; Foreign Bodies; Gastrointestinal Tract; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Numismatics; Pica; Schizophrenia; Zinc

Topics: Adult; Anemia, Sideroblastic; Blood Transfusion; Chelating Agents; Dimercaprol; Edetic Acid; Female; Foreign Bodies; Humans; Lead Poisoning; Pica; Schizophrenia; Sinus Thrombosis, Intracranial; Stomach

The author reports the case of a youth who first became salient by self-neglect and finally was hospitalized for heavy drug abuse. In the closed ward, he suddenly displayed pica behavior but, in the further course, developed a typical schizophrenic syndrome. The diagnostic criteria are presented as well as all subtypes of pica. The author goes into the question of the aetiology of this enigmatic disorder. Finally, he points out the typical complications of pica and the therapeutical possibilities which are determined most of all by the underlying disease.

Topics: Adult; Humans; Male; Pica; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenic Psychology; Self-Injurious Behavior

A case is presented of a patient with a psychiatric illness and pica who developed a pyogenic liver abscess due to perforation of the duodenum by a pen. This report emphasizes the importance of ultrasound and computed tomography in making a rapid diagnosis. The relative superiority of ultrasound was revealed because an anaesthetic was not required for scanning, and in addition to the liver abscess, the precise location of the perforating foreign body was demonstrated.

Topics: Adult; Duodenoscopy; Duodenum; Foreign-Body Migration; Humans; Liver Abscess; Male; Pica; Radiography; Rupture; Schizophrenia; Self Mutilation; Suction; Ultrasonography

Pica is the persistent, culturally and developmentally inappropriate ingestion of non-nutritive substances (DSM-IV). AB is a 75-year-old lady with a 40-year history of schizophrenia and a 20-year history of pica who, at emergency laparotomy, had 175.32 Pounds of loose change in her stomach. Although pica has been reported to coexist with schizophrenia, she had had no positive symptoms of schizophrenia for at least 20 years. She has CT evidence of fronto-tempotal atrophy most marked on the left in the temporal lobe and on the right in the frontal lobe. Pica has been found to be related to cognitive deficits and hyperoral behaviour to temporal lesions. Neuropsychological testing reveals deficits closely related to these changes.

Topics: Aged; Female; Humans; Neuropsychological Tests; Pica; Schizophrenia

Topics: Anemia, Hypochromic; Humans; Lead Poisoning; Male; Middle Aged; Pica; Schizophrenia

Urine volume and osmolality were studied in two schizophrenic patients with hyponatremia and six normal subjects after they smoked or ingested cigarettes. The results suggest that cigarette use may contribute to the development of hyponatremia by impairing water excretion.

Topics: Adult; Female; Humans; Hyponatremia; Male; Middle Aged; Nicotiana; Pica; Plants, Toxic; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenic Psychology; Smoking; Water Intoxication

Topics: Aged; Female; Humans; Pica; Schizophrenia; Symbolism

The authors report a case of a schizophrenic patient who repeatedly consumed a wide variety of inedible materials, including significant quantities of tobacco. The phenomenology of this behavior, as well as its psychiatric and medical complications are discussed. It is probable that chronic nicotinism contributed to this patient's refractoriness to psychiatric treatment and to his eventual cardiovascular crisis. The occurrence of pica as a manifestation of severe psychopathology was vividly described by the early pioneers of neuropsychiatry, but has received little attention in recent psychiatric literature. This is in marked contrast to the syndrome of psychogenic water intoxication which continues to be reported frequently. The majority of descriptions of pica have dealt with its occurrence in children, in pregnant women, and as a societal practice in certain cultures studied from a medico-anthropologic point of view. The toxic organic brain syndrome caused by chronic ingestion of nicotine-containing products has also been neglected in psychiatric publications. Descriptions of the neuropsychiatric complications of subacute and chronic nicotinism have been restricted to textbooks of toxicology, where greater emphasis has been given to the acute effects of large quantities of nicotine, often in forms other than tobacco. The following case illustrates the near-fatal practice of tobacco pica in a psychotic patient and dramatically demonstrates the systemic and central nervous system effects of nicotinism.

Topics: Adult; Humans; Male; Myocardial Infarction; Nicotine; Pica; Schizophrenia