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Post-Partum Psychosis in Adult GM2 Gangliosidosis

A Case Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

P. Lichtenberg ,
R. Navon ,
E. Wertman ,
H. Dasberg  and
B. Lerer
P. Lichtenberg*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Jerusalem Mental Health Center
R. Navon
Affiliation:
Department of Human Genetics, Tel-Aviv University and the Chaim Sheba Medical Center
E. Wertman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Jerusalem Mental Health Center
H. Dasberg
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Jerusalem Mental Health Center
B. Lerer
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Jerusalem Mental Health Center
*
∗Department of Psychiatry, Jerusalem Mental Health Center, P.O.B. 140, Jerusalem, Israel
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Abstract

Adult hexosaminidase A deficiency is a form of GM2 gangliosidosis with autosomal recessive inheritance. Only 35 cases (mostly among Ashkenazic Jews) have been reported worldwide. Symptoms include, in a third of the cases, psychosis. A 27–year-old sufferer with no prior psychiatric history, developed a post-partum psychosis, with affective and hebephrenic components, 3 days following her first delivery. She responded to lithium within 10 days of initiating treatment; the full episode lasted 1 month. We conclude that lithium is the preferred treatment for psychosis in such adult patients, especially in light of possible long-term neurological deterioration caused by phenothiazines. Ashkenazic Jews with atypical neurological syndromes presenting with psychosis should be tested for hexosaminadase A deficiency.

Type
Brief Reports
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 153 , Issue 3 , September 1988 , pp. 387 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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