Two Cases of Psychotic Disorder Following Phendimetrazine Use / 대한정신약물학회지

ABSTRACT

Phendimetrazine is a medication currently being used to help patients with weight loss. It shares a chemical structure with amphetamines. As such, it shares some of the same toxicities, which can include psychosis. Two cases present good examples of phendimetrazine-induced psychotic disorder. A 30-year old female was admitted to emergency room with visual hallucination, auditory hallucination and aberrant behavior. Another 38-year old housewife was accompanied by her family to evaluate mood swing, auditory hallucination and behavioral change to psychiatric clinic. After evaluation in psychiatric ward, they were confirmed to have causal relation with prescription diet pills. These case reports demonstrate the potential dangers of amphetamine based diet pills. There have been several cases of cardiomyopathies and pulmonary hypertension related to phendimetrazine, but psychosis is something that is rarely recognized in an outpatient setting. Two cases showed the importance of obtaining a careful medication history in all patients and specially recognizing diet pills with an amphetamine base causing psychosis.