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Schizophrenia and Cushing's syndrome cured by adrenalectomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

John Johnson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester

Synopsis

A case of Cushing's syndrome in a woman aged 50 years is described, with psychosis of schizophrenic type. The psychosis and endocrine disorder were subsequently cured by adrenalectomy. Twenty-five years previously the patient had a typical schizophrenic psychosis treated in mental hospital with deep insulin therapy and ECT. The possibility is raised that deep insulin therapy could have induced the Cushing's syndrome through its non-specific stressor effect on the pituitary-adrenal axis.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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