Self-report of psychological symptoms in hypoparathyroidism patients on conventional therapy

ABSTRACT Objective: Hypoparathyroidism is characterized by parathyroid hormone deficiency and hypocalcemia. It has been demonstrated that these patients may also present psychiatric symptoms and decrease of quality of life. The aims of this study were to evaluate the presence of psychopathological symptoms in a cohort of patients with hypoparathyroidism and compare to a control group. Subjects and methods: Patients were submitted to a cross-sectional Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) questionnaire that evaluates psychopathological symptoms by means of the Global Severity Index (GSI), Positive Symptoms Total (PST) and Positive Symptom Distress Index (PSDI). A score based in the positive symptoms was calculated (T-score). The test group was composed of patients with hypoparathyroidism, and control by thyroidectomized patients without hypoparathyroidism. A correlation between the presence of psychological symptoms and clinical features was analyzed. Results: The study included 57 patients with a mean age of 51.1 ± 16.4 years; 20 as a control and 37, test group. There were no differences between groups regarding gender, mean age and age at diagnose. Hypoparathyroidism patients presented higher GSI index than the control group (p = 0.038). Mean T-score of the test group was as elevated as 58.2 ± 5.3 (reference range < 55). No correlation of the number of psychological symptoms to clinical and laboratorial parameters was observed. Conclusion: Patients with hypoparathyroidism attending our outpatient clinics presented an increase in the number of self-report of psychological symptoms when compared with a control group. However, no correlation with hypocalcemia and clinical parameters was observed. Future studies are necessary to evaluated if the absence of PTH play a role on it.

Síndrome neuroléptico maligno / Neuroleptic malignant syndrome

El Síndrome Neuroléptico Maligno es una enfermedad rara pero con alta mortalidad, por lo cual es conveniente tenerla presente ante la aparición de un cuadro de hipertermia inducido por drogas. En ocasiones la presentación clínica suele ser indistinguible de una Hipertermia Maligna, si bien su mecanismo fisiopatológico es completamente diferente. Sus características clínicas comprenden hipertermia, rigidez muscular, elevación de la creatininfosfoquinasa (C.P.K.) además de mioglobinemia y mioglobinuria, como consecuencia de la rabdomiólisis. En esta recopilación mencionaremos su fisiopatología, etiología, criterios clínicos, su relación con Hipertermia maligna y los detalles de su tratamiento.