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Combined medication and MS attack
Identifier
002082
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2010 Oct;64(5):584-6. - Persistent interferon-ß-1b-induced psychosis in a patient with multiple sclerosis.
Manfredi G Kotzalidis GD Sani G Koukopoulos AE Savoja V, Lazanio S Girardi N Tatarelli R ; Psychiatric Unit, Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Functions (NESMOS), Sapienza University, 2nd Medical School, Sant' Andrea Hospital, Rome, Italy.
Interferon-ß is used in patients with multiple sclerosis to reduce autoimmunity; although other psychiatric side-effects are common, in contrast to interferon-alpha, psychosis has been reported only once.
A patient with multiple sclerosis developed auditory hallucinations, paranoid delusions, and increased aggressiveness after 16 months of treatment with interferon-ß-1b, 250 mg every other day.
He responded after about one month to antipsychotic treatment, but tended to relapse upon dose reduction, and after 2 years still needs antipsychotics to control his symptoms.
Because there was no change in his magnetic resonance imaging between pre- and post-treatment with interferon, we concluded that psychosis was more related to interferon treatment than to the underlying disease.
PMID: 20939157