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Schizophreniform Psychosis with Chronic Brucellosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

P. T. Annesley*
Affiliation:
Hereford Hospital Group

Extract

It has long been recognized that chronic brucellosis may present as a psychoneurotic illness, and this is well emphasized by Spink (1963) in Cecil and Loeb's Textbook of Medicine. However, presentation in the form of a psychosis is rare, and this is not mentioned in Spink's article, nor in a standard psychiatric textbook such as Mayer-Gross, Slater and Roth (1954). Dalrymple-Champneys (1960) described a series of 1,500 cases of brucellosis; only two of his patients had delusions and hallucinations. Hobbs (1931) described the case of a woman of 56 who developed delusions of persecution and believed her food to be poisoned. This latter symptom was also shown by one of the patients in Dalrymple-Champneys' series, and the same complaint occurred in my patient. Although a very rare cause of paranoid illness, the recognition of brucellosis is important so that appropriate treatment can be instituted.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1968 

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References

Dalrymple-Champneys, Sir W. (1960). Brucella Infection and Undulant Fever in Man. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mayer-Gross, W., Slater, E., and Roth, M. (1954). Clinical Psychiatry. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
Hobbs, F. B. (1931). Lancet, ii, 683.Google Scholar
Spink, W. W. (1963). In Cecil and Loeb's Textbook of Medicine. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.Google Scholar
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