Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology

Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders Huntington’s disease misdiagnosed as schizophrenia: a case report

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology 2013; 23: Supplement S161-S161
Read: 691 Published: 20 March 2021

Huntington’s disease (HD), an autosomal dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorder, is characterized by the gradual onset and progression of motor, cognitive and psychiatric symptoms. In this report, we present a case with HD who was misdiagnosed as Schizophrenia. A 41-years old, female patient had been treated for the diagnosis of schizophrenia for 10 years. She was admitted to our psychiatry department with the symptoms of jealousy and somatic delusions, chorea, dystonia, parkinsonian features, apathy, irritability and depressive features. She thought there were worms in her throat. She had used olanzapine, chlorpromazine, zuclopenthixol depot and escitalopram at different times. It was clarified that her disease process started 10 years ago with psychotic symptoms and chorea symptoms were added on later. Minimal frontoparietal cortical atrophy and ventricular dilation were seen in the Cranial MRI. DNA analysis supported the clinical diagnosis of HD with higher number of CAG repeats. Clozapine was started and other drugs were stopped. Delusions and hallucinations were improved dramatically and movement disorder partially resolved. During the interview her affect was anxious and irritable. Her orientation was normal. Her thought process was perseverative with a content of somatic and jealousy delusions. She reported tactile hallucinations. Patients with HD can exhibit psychotic symptoms with movement symptoms. In this case, we aimed to emphasize that HD should always be included in the differential diagnosis of psychotic disorders.

EISSN 2475-0581