Schizophrenia-like disorder in Wilson's disease

Abstract

Wilson's (Wilson–Konovalov) disease (WD) is a chronic progressive disease resulting from impaired body copper metabolism with damages to target organs (liver, brain, and kidneys). The paper describes a clinical case of organic delusional (schizophrenia-like) disorder in a patient with WD. The characteristic feature of its psychiatric onset in the patient is schizophrenia-like disorders in the absence of neurological and gastroenterological symptoms. Because of this onset of WD, patients have not received specific treatment for a long time (frequently before the appearance of the Kayser–Fleischer rings or the occurrence of cirrhosis). Thus, the diagnostic search should include WD in young patients with a primary psychotic episode. The search for early effective methods for WD verification is of interest for further investigations.

Keywords

• mental disorders
• psychotic disorders
• copper
• hepatolenticular degeneration
• diagnostic errors