Paranoid delusions and cognitive impairment suggesting Fahr's disease.
The authors present the case of a 60-year-old woman with elaborate paranoid delusions and cognitive impairment found during a workup for atypical chest pain. Clinical evaluation revealed mild dementia, and radiography showed basal ganglia calcification consistent with Fahr's disease. She was treated with risperidone and transferred to a psychiatric inpatient unit for definitive care. Psychiatrists should consider Fahr's disease as a differential diagnosis in the evaluation of psychosis and cognitive impairment when neuroimaging reveals calcification of the basal ganglia.
Shakibai
Shamim V
SV
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Davis Medical Center, University of California, 2230 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95817, USA.
Johnson
Joel P
JP
Bourgeois
James A
JA
D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D001480:Basal Ganglia Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002114:Calcinosis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D003702:Delusions / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010258:Paranoid Behavior / Q000150:complications*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed