ABSTRACT
Prazosin is an alpha-1 blocker that is commonly given to patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to reduce nightmares and flashbacks. Its use in acute stress disorder (ASD), however, has not been well characterized. There is a moderately positive correlation between ASD and the subsequent development of PTSD, which indicates that there may be some common neurobiological mechanisms that connect the 2 conditions. We present the case of a 51-year-old man who was experiencing symptoms of ASD following a motor vehicle accident that occurred a few days earlier. He was reporting flashbacks and nightmares of the accident, but after being treated with prazosin, his symptoms completely resolved. Prazosin may be effective in treating the symptoms of ASD and, by doing this, it may also play a role in inhibiting the progression of ASD to PTSD.
Subject(s)
Prazosin/therapeutic use , Stress Disorders, Traumatic, Acute/drug therapy , Adrenergic alpha-1 Receptor Antagonists/therapeutic use , Dreams/drug effects , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Prazosin/pharmacology , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/drug therapy , Stress Disorders, Traumatic, Acute/psychologyABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Our goal was to determine the risk factors that most correlated with mood disorder diagnoses in children in a low-income, urban community. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective chart review of 174 patients age 6 to 18 who were seen between November 2016 and July 2017 at the University Hospital Psychiatric Pediatric Emergency Services in Newark, New Jersey, United States. RESULTS: Bivariate and multivariate analyses revealed that increasing age, female sex, exposure to trauma, and family history of psychiatric illness were significantly associated with mood disorders in our sample. CONCLUSIONS: The correlation of mood disorders with trauma and family psychiatric history is of particular significance in our sample. In low-income cities with high crime rates and a lack of positive influences, children often have difficulty obtaining the skills to cope with trauma in a healthy manner. Also, the paucity of resources in these communities prevents family members from getting the mental health treatment that they need, further inhibiting children in these families from developing healthy habits. Mental health treatment must be targeted towards entire families and not just in children with mood disorders in order to most effectively improve the mental health outcomes of those who grow up in these communities.
Subject(s)
Child of Impaired Parents/statistics & numerical data , Family , Mood Disorders/epidemiology , Poverty/statistics & numerical data , Psychological Trauma/epidemiology , Urban Population/statistics & numerical data , Adolescent , Age Factors , Child , Female , Humans , Male , New Jersey/epidemiology , Retrospective Studies , Sex FactorsABSTRACT
Objective: Meningioma is the most common type of primary central nervous system and intracranial tumor, and psychiatric changes attributed to meningioma include depression, apathy, psychosis, and personality changes. We present a case of a 59-year-old man with right parietal meningioma who developed mania with psychotic features throughout multiple hospitalizations. Method: Single-case report. Results: The patient originally presented with headache and bilateral lower extremity weakness. He was found to have a large medial sphenoidal wing meningioma and a small right parietal meningioma. The sphenoidal wing meningioma was removed via craniotomy, but the right parietal meningioma was not resected. In the following years, the patient developed symptoms of mania and psychosis which coincided with an increase in size of the right parietal meningioma. Conclusions: Previous studies have linked right parietal meningioma to psychosis, but this case is one of the first to suggest that right parietal meningioma may be associated with the development of mania along with psychotic features.
