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Cyclic Psychosis Associated with the Menstrual Cycle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Daniel Stein*
Affiliation:
‘Abarbanel’ Mental Health Center, Bat-Yam, and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
Aharon Hanukoglu
Affiliation:
Paediatric Department, ‘Edith Wolfson’ Medical Center, Holon, and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
Slulamit Blank
Affiliation:
‘Kaplan’ Medical Center, Rehovot, Israel
Avner Elizur
Affiliation:
‘Abarbanel’ Mental Health Center, Bat-Yam, and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
*
Adolescent Department, ‘Abarbanel’ Mental Health Center, Bat-Yam, 59100, Israel

Abstract

Psychotic symptoms are not included under accepted definitions of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). We present a 14-year-old girl with PMS, who developed a late luteal cyclic psychosis during two consecutive premenstrual periods, which resolved completely after the onset of menses. She was treated with dehydroxyprogesterone for two cycles, and later with placebo for the next three consecutive cycles. Psychotic symptoms did not reappear following two psychotic cycles, and the PMS resolved within the next menstrual cycle. We suggest that cyclic psychoses associated with the menstrual cycle may be a specific benign entity, not included under the recognised functional psychoses. In some cases these psychoses could be classified as a subgroup of PMS.

Type
Brief Reports
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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