CASE REPORT   

Minerva Psichiatrica 2019 December;60(4):191-3

DOI: 10.23736/S0391-1772.19.02031-4

Copyright © 2019 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Psychogenic intermittent polydipsia

Indushree THIPPESWAMY ¹, Hemendra SINGH ² ✉, Mukunda NARAYANA REDDY ¹, Mahesh ESWARAPPA ³, Suhail KHALID ⁴

¹ Department of Pharmacology, Ramaiah Medical College, Bengaluru, India; ² Department of Psychiatry, Ramaiah Medical College, Bengaluru, India; ³ Department of Nephrology, Ramaiah Medical College, Bengaluru, India; ⁴ Department of General Medicine, Ramaiah Medical College, Bengaluru, India

Psychogenic polydipsia is a condition where the person consumes water in excess accompanied with psychogenic symptoms, mental illness and developmental disability there is a psychosis. Many cases present with hyponatremia and its central nervous system manifestations. Here, we describe a case of psychogenic polydipsia presented with hyponatremia with convulsion. A 52-year-old male patient presented to our hospital with an episode of convulsion and had a history of irrelevant talks, visual hallucinations, decreased sleep, polydipsia since 2 months. On the day of admission, there was hyponatremia with serum sodium levels 114 mmol/L. He was diagnosed with psychogenic intermittent polydipsia (PIP). Patient was treated with antipsychotic drug along with IV fluids, anti-epileptics, and other supportive measures. PIP syndrome is a diagnosis of exclusion. Early diagnosis of polydipsia causing hyponatremia to be made so that consequences like seizures, coma and life threatening situations can be avoided.

KEY WORDS: Psychotic disorders; Hyponatremia; Polydipsia; Seizures