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Organic Affective Psychosis Associated with the Routine Use of Non-prescription Cold Preparations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Terry M. Brown ,
Robert N. Golden  and
Dwight L. Evans
Terry M. Brown
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, School of Medicine
Robert N. Golden*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Campus Box 7160, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Dwight L. Evans
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, University of North Carolina, School of Medicine
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

A patient experienced an organic affective psychosis on three separate occasions after taking recommended doses of non-prescription cold/sinus preparations. The possible underlying pharmacological mechanisms of this clinical reaction lend support to the cholinergic-adrenergic balance hypothesis of affective disorders. Recognition of this acute drug-induced state can lead to appropriate short-term pharmacotherapy and can prevent misdiagnosis of a major affective disorder or schizophrenia.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 156 , Issue 4 , April 1990 , pp. 572 - 575
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

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