Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-x9fsb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-24T10:55:02.145Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Case of Childhood Pellagra with Psychosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

L. A. Hersov
L. A. Hersov*
Affiliation:
The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Pellagra is a rare disease in Great Britain. The majority of cases occur among patients in mental hospitals and institutions (Stannus and Gibbons, 1934), and more recently it has been described as an accompaniment or complication of a chronic psychosis (Hardwick, 1946). Sporadic cases do arise in the general population (Davis and Hinden, 1941), but it is likely that in many instances the disease goes unrecognized (Deeny, 1942). Pellagra is particularly uncommon in British children (Greenfield and Holmes, 1939), although observers in areas where the disease is rife are of the opinion that it is found more frequently in children than in adults (Weston and Weston, 1948).

Mental symptoms are frequent in pellagra and may, in fact, precede the other manifestations (Sydenstricker, 1943). Severe psychoses occur in untreated cases and depressive, manic and paranoid reactions have been described (Hardwick, 1946). In children, however, symptoms are usually mild and mania or delirium is not often present (Holt and Mcintosh, 1953); therefore this case of pellagra with a psychotic reaction in a 10-year-old English schoolboy may be of interest.

Information

Type
Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 101 , Issue 425 , October 1955 , pp. 878 - 883
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1955 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bicknell, F., and Prescott, F., The Vitamins in Medicine, 1953. 3rd ed., p. 352. London: William Heinemann.Google Scholar
Chick, H., Nutr. Abst. and Revs., 1951, 20, 523.Google Scholar
Davis, E., and Hinden, E., Lancet, 1941, i, 10.Google Scholar
Deeny, J., Brit. Med. J., 1942, i, 157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodd, K., in Seale Harris's Clinical Pellagra, 1941, p. 341. St. Louis: C. V. Mosby & Co.Google Scholar
Ford, F. R., Diseases of the Nervous System in Infancy and Childhood, 1952. 3rd ed., p. 768. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Frostig, J. P., and Spies, T. D., Amer. J. Med. Sci., 1940, 199, 268.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, G. A., Sarett, H. D., Register, U. D., and Gibbens, J., J. Clin. Invest., 1952, 31, 533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenfield, J. G., and MacD Holmes, J., Brit. Med. J., 1939, i, 815.Google Scholar
Hardwick, S. W., J. Ment. Sci., 1946, 92, 310.Google Scholar
Himwich, H., J. Nerv. Ment. Dis., 1951, 114, 450.Google Scholar
Holt, L, E. Jr., and McIntosh, R., Holt's Pediatrics, 1953. 12th ed., p. 294. New York: Appleton Century Crofts Inc. Google Scholar
Hutchison, R., and Paterson, D., Brit. Med. J., 1923, ii, 646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kanner, L., Child Psychiatry, 1948. 2nd ed., p. 449. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Rodnight, R., and McIlwain, H., J. Ment. Sci., 1955, 101, 884.Google Scholar
Sarett, H. P., and Goldsmith, G. A., J. Biol. Chem., 1949, 177, 461.Google Scholar
Spies, T. D., and Butt, H., in G. G., Duncan's Diseases of Metabolism, 1947. 2nd ed., p. 440. London: W. B. Saunders Company.Google Scholar
Stannus, H. S., and Gibson, C. R., Quart. J. Med., 1934, n.s. 3, 211.Google Scholar
Sydenstricker, V. P., Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1942, 36, 169.Google Scholar
Vilter, R. W., Mueller, J. F., and Bean, W. B., J. Lab. Clin. Med., 1949, 34, 409.Google Scholar
Weston, W., and Weston, W. Jr., in Brenneman's Practice of Paediatrics, 1948. Vol. 1, Ch. 34, p. 1. Hagerstown: W. F. Prior & Co Google Scholar
Yudkin, J., Lectures on the Scientific Basis of Medicine, 1951–2. Vol. 1, p. 364. University of London: The Athlone Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.