Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2015 | Case report
Severe psychosis due to Cushing’s syndrome in a patient with a carcinoid tumour in the lung: a case report and review of the current management
Authors:
Mohamad Baba, Debamalya Ray
Published in:
World Journal of Surgical Oncology
|
Issue 1/2015
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Abstract
Severe psychosis in patients with Cushing’s syndrome is a rare occurrence and can be extremely resistant to medical therapy. We describe a case of a 51-year-old Afro-Caribbean female patient, with refractory severe hypertension (initially resistant to polypharmacy) and gradual development of severe psychosis secondary to ectopic Cushing’s syndrome, who was subsequently diagnosed to have a carcinoid tumour in her lung. Her psychotic episodes - secondary to hypercortisolism and initially refractory to the medical therapy - subsided only after the resection of the carcinoid tumour in her right lower pulmonary lobe. Early localization and appropriate surgical resection of the ectopic ACTH-secreting tumour can be of immense value to the successful alleviation of the psychotic episodes of the patients with ectopic Cushing’s syndrome.