Monthly psychosis during amenorrhoea

Excerpt

An earlier paper on the indications for bleeding mentioned a girl whose menses stopped 2 years after her menarche; soon afterwards, she had an attack of mania lasting 3–4 days, coinciding with her previous menses, and this recurred every month at the same time, with full recovery (Sauvet 1848). Other cases have been described, of which the most persuasive are the following:

A 17 year old Russian girl became manic after a severe attack of tonsillitis, complicated by amenorrhoea, which continued for a year. During that time she had 7 identical episodes of excitement followed by mutism and stupor, sometimes with catatonia. The mean interval between them was 32 days. They ceased when her menses returned—Naumoff (1929).

An 18 year old French girl, who was always a little excited in the premenstrual phase, became manic when her menses became scanty. After they ceased altogether, she suffered 7 further episodes at a mean interval of 29 days. She was treated with diencephalic radiotherapy. When normal menstruation reappeared, she remained well—Guiraud et al. (1946).

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