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Acute psychiatric illness in a young woman: an unusual form of encephalitis
Author(s) -
Parratt Kaitlyn L,
Allan Martin,
Lewis Simon J G,
Dalmau Josep,
Halmagyi Gabor M,
Spies Judith M
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02787.x
Subject(s) - neurology , medicine , general hospital , psychiatry , pediatrics
A 21-year-old woman was admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of acute psychotic mania, but developed, over approximately 6 weeks, seizures, delirium, catatonia, movement disorder and autonomic dysfunction. She was found to have antibodies to N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) NR1-NR2 receptors in both serum and cerebrospinal fluid, consistent with anti-NMDA-receptor encephalitis, a severe, potentially lethal but treatment-responsive encephalitis often associated with ovarian tumour. With aggressive immunotherapy and bilateral oophorectomy, she recovered over a period of 14 months from her initial presentation. No ovarian tumour was identified.