Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease presenting as severe depression: a case report.
BACKGROUND
An 81 year old female presented with altered mental status after new onset of severe depression and suicidal ideation with recent psychiatric hospitalization.


METHODS
Key clinical features included muscle rigidity, prominent startle reflex, and rapidly progressing cognitive decline. Initial working hypothesis was serotonin syndrome or neuroleptic malignant syndrome but continued deterioration after medication removal prompted evaluation for alternative etiology. Work-up revealed elevated 14-3-3 CSF protein which suggested the prion disorder which was confirmed on post-mortem examination of brain tissue.


CONCLUSIONS
While the degree of depression was unusually severe, the case highlights the behavioral and psychiatric manifestations which frequently accompany Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.
Cumbler
Ethan
E
Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Hospital Medicine Service, F782, Colorado, USA. Ethan.Cumbler@ucdenver.edu.
Furfari
Kristin
K
Guerrasio
Jeannette
J