Psychiatry Commons^™

Chronic Schizophrenia Presenting With Psychogenic Polydipsia Masking Stage Iv Uterine Adenocarcinoma, Dakota B. Pastore, Kamayel Jaludi, Angelo Sica Md

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Background: Psychogenic polydipsia (PPD) is a condition of excessive water intake and seeking behavior with a 6-20% prevalence among patients with psychiatric illnesses, commonly Schizophrenia. It remains unknown how often concomitant disease can mask other, more serious conditions in psychiatric patients.

Case Description: The patient is a 58-year-old Hispanic, white female with chronic schizophrenia complicated by multiple hospitalizations for hyponatremia secondary to PPD. The patient initially presented to the emergency department (ED) in 2016 with abdominal pain, was treated symptomatically and discharged. From 2020 to 2023, the patient was readmitted seven more times, with two suspected aspirin overdoses, an Ambien …

Development Of Schizophrenia In A Genetically Predisposed Individual Following Covid-19, Sung Kang, Jonathan Yuh, Timothy Wong

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

We present a patient who is a 56-year-old female with a psychiatric history of anxiety disorder and a medical history of hypercholesterolemia and hyperthyroidism, who was admitted to the hospital after a witnessed seizure at an inpatient psychiatric facility. This patient’s family history is significant for her mother experiencing unspecified psychotic disorder that required psychiatric hospitalization. Our patient was first admitted to the psychiatric hospital after exhibiting worsening paranoid delusions and hallucinations that began several months prior. The patient had reportedly begun locking herself in the restroom and screaming “get out, they’re spying on me”, referring to her next-door neighbors …

A Preliminary Report: The Hippocampus And Surrounding Temporal Cortex Of Patients With Schizophrenia Have Impaired Blood-Brain Barrier, Eric L. Goldwaser, Randel L. Swanson, Edgardo J. Arroyo, Venkat Venkataraman, Mary C. Kosciuk, Robert G. Nagele, L. Elliot Hong, Nimish K. Acharya

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Schizophrenia (SZ) is one of the most severe forms of mental illness, yet mechanisms remain unclear. A widely established brain finding in SZ is hippocampal atrophy, and a coherent explanation similarly is lacking. Epidemiological evidence suggests increased cerebrovascular and cardiovascular complications in SZ independent of lifestyle and medication, pointing to disease-specific pathology. Endothelial cell contributions to blood-brain barrier (BBB) compromise may influence neurovascular unit and peripheral vascular function, and we hypothesize that downstream functional and structural abnormalities may be explained by impaired BBB.