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Hyperparathyroidism and Paranoid Psychosis

Case Report and Review of the Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Renato D. Alarcón  and
José A. Franceschini
Renato D. Alarcón*
Affiliation:
School of Medicine, University of Alabama in Birmingham, 619 6th Avenue South, Birmingham, Alabama 35223, USA
José A. Franceschini
Affiliation:
School of Medicine, University of Alabama in Birmingham, 619 6th Avenue South, Birmingham, Alabama 35223, USA
*
∗Correspondence
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Summary

Literature on psychiatric manifestations of hyperparathyroidism published in the last four decades confirms the unusual features of a case of paranoid psychosis secondary to a parathyroid-adenoma-induced hypercalcaemia. Affective and organic symptoms are overwhelmingly dominant in hypercalcaemic patients; the majority of cases reported are women of 50 years or older, who have been vaguely ill for a prolonged time before the actual endocrinopathy appears. The severity of the psychiatric symptoms does not seem to be related to the degree of hypercalcaemia. Recent findings link the role of calcium and related ions in the production of psychopathological symptoms to membrane phenomena, dopaminergic activity, and neuroendocrine regulation.

Type
Review Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 145 , Issue 5 , November 1984 , pp. 477 - 486
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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