title: Avoidance of swallowing saliva: a symptom related to aberrant basal ganglia functions?
abstract: We report two patients with avoidance of swallowing saliva despite intact swallowing functions. One, with mild, de novo Parkinson's disease, had a fear that his saliva was contaminated and would harm him. The other, with a history of CNS germinoma in remission for 3 years following chemotherapy, expectorated because his saliva was distasteful and disgusting. He had a lesion involving the left pallidum. Both appeared obsessed with the idea of saliva contamination and both expectorated compulsively, presenting obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. OCD-like behavior may be induced in association with pathological conditions in which aberrant basal ganglia functions are present.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan. h-miwa@wakayama-med.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hideto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miwa
authors.forename: Kaoru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuruta
authors.forename: Tomoyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kondo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D001480:Basal Ganglia Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D003192:Compulsive Behavior / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003679:Deglutition / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D012463:Saliva