Psychiatric Manifestations of Neurosyphilis

Psychotic mania as the solitary manifestation of neurosyphilis

“…On the other hand, neurosyphilis presenting as paranoia, delusional thinking, and mood disorder has also been reported [ 7 , 8 ]. Specific forms of hallucinations or schizophrenia-like symptoms as well as depressive and manic episodes were observed in patients with neurosyphilis [ 1 , 8 , 9 ]. Although there are no pathognomonic brain imaging findings that suggest neurosyphilis [ 4 ], several abnormal MRI findings, including generalized cerebral atrophy and foci of increased signal intensity on T2-weighted images, have been reported [ 10 ].…”

“…Interestingly, in the present case, prominent symptoms of psychotic mania were presented without any abnormalities in cognition, results of neurological examination, or brain MRI. Even though neurosyphilis may present with virtually any psychiatric symptom [ 1 , 11 ], there has been only one case report of neurosyphilis presenting psychotic mania without any cognitive or neurological abnormalities [ 12 ]. Despite the patient fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for psychotic mania, some features of the case implied an organic cause of his manic-like episode with psychotic symptoms.…”

“…Although the prevalence of syphilis remarkably decreased after widespread use of penicillin, there appears to be a resurgence of syphilis in the United States and several European countries [ 1 ]. The reemerging syphilis has been found to occur predominantly in high-risk groups, such as those infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [ 2 ].…”

Neurosyphilis: epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical course and laboratory diagnostics

“…по данным некоторых современных зарубежных авторов [87], при осуществлении ликвородиагностики у больных скрытыми формами сифилиса в 25-30% случаев устанавливается диагноз асимптомного нейросифилиса, нередко встречаются больные нейросифилисом с первичной манифестацией в виде ишемического инсульта [88]. Достаточно часто встречаются сообщения об увеличении числа больных с симптомами нарушения психики при поздних формах нейросифилиса [89][90][91] и поражением зрительного нерва [92,93].…”