Neuropsychiatric manifestations in systemic lupus erythematosus

ABSTRACT

An unselected group of 52 patients with SLE [48 females-4 males] were studied for neuropsychiatric manifestations. Clinical, standard laboratory and serological tests were performed. There were 18 patients [34.6%] with 24 neuropsychiatric episodes. Seven patients [13.4%] showed pure neurological episodes, 7 patients [13.4%] showed pure psychiatric and 4 patients [7.6%] showed both. The commonest neurological manifestations were convulsions seen in 6 patients [11.5%], with abnormal EEG findings in more than 2/3 of them. The most common psychiatric manifestations were paranoid reactions and Depression were reported in 5 patients [9.6%] for each. Our study revealed higher prevalence of these complications in Iraqi SLE patients than most of the previous reports