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.
Author: Mohamad BabaDebamalya Ray
Credits/Source: World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2015, 13:165
Filed under: Cancer, Cushing's, Rare Diseases | Tagged: carcinoid, Cushing's Syndrome, ectopic, hypertension, lung, polypharmacy, psychosis, tumor | Leave a comment »