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Textbook of Medical Psychiatry 1St Edition Edited by Paul Summergrad Full Chapter PDF
Textbook of Medical Psychiatry 1St Edition Edited by Paul Summergrad Full Chapter PDF
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“Finally, a resource that lucidly describes medical diseases that cause psychiatric symptoms, and psychiatric
diseases that cause physical ailments. The discussion of the overlap between these is the best I have read and
will serve as a resource for psychiatrists, neurologists, and generalists for some time to come.”
TEXTBOOK of
Allan H. Ropper, M.D., Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School; Executive Vice Chair, Department of
MEDICAL
Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
MEDICAL PSYCHIATRY
“Medical illness can mimic or cause all sorts of psychiatric problems and vice versa. The first step in every dif-
ferential diagnosis in psychiatry must be to rule out medical illness.… This vital book…should become required
reading for all medical students. It has my highest recommendation.”
Allen Frances, M.D., Professor & Chair Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry, Duke University; Chair, DSM-IV Task
PSYCHIATRY
Force; Author, Saving Normal
“Combined or co-occurring medical and psychiatric illnesses are critically important in both general and spe-
cialty medical care. Through case examples, developing a differential diagnosis and clinical reasoning, and
reviewing the evidence-based approaches for management and treatment, this textbook will be the standard
TEXTBOOK of
in the field. It is a major and significant contribution.”
Michelle B. Riba, M.D., M.S., Professor and Associate Director, University of Michigan Comprehensive Depression
Center; and Director, PsychOncology Program, University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center
T he Textbook of Medical Psychiatry focuses on medical disorders that can directly cause or affect the clinical
presentation and course of psychiatric disorders. Clinicians who work primarily in psychiatric settings, as
well as those who practice in medical settings but who have patients with co-occurring medical and psychiatric
illnesses or symptoms, can benefit from a careful consideration of the medical causes of psychiatric illnesses.
The editors, authorities in the field, have taken great care both in selecting the book’s contributors, who are
content and clinical experts, and in structuring the book for maximum learning and usefulness.
Even veteran clinicians may find it challenging to diagnose and treat patients who have co-occurring
medical and psychiatric disorders or symptoms. The comprehensive knowledge base and clinical wisdom
contained in the Textbook of Medical Psychiatry make it the go-to resource for evaluating and managing these
difficult cases.
Paul Summergrad, M.D., is Dr. Frances S. Arkin Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, and
Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine, at Tufts University School of Medicine, as well as Psychiatrist-in-Chief
of Tufts Medical Center, in Boston, Massachusetts.
David A. Silbersweig, M.D., is Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Chairman
of the Department of Psychiatry, as well as Co-Director of the Center for the Neurosciences at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
Philip R. Muskin, M.D., M.A., is Professor of Psychiatry and Senior Consultant in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
at Columbia University Medical Center, in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos Col- Summergrad
lege of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, New York. Silbersweig
John Querques, M.D., is Vice Chairman for Hospital Services in the Department of Psychiatry at Tufts Medical Muskin
Center and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts.
Querques
MEDICAL
PSYCHIATRY
TEXTBOOK of
MEDICAL
PSYCHIATRY
EDITED BY
For Randy, Sophie, and Michael—For all the many reasons why.
Paul Summergrad
For Emily Stern, my partner in all things, with love and respect.
David A. Silbersweig
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxi
Professor Sir Simon Wessely
PART I
Approach to the Patient
PART II
Psychiatric Considerations
in Medical Disorders
PART IV
Conditions and Syndromes
at the Medical–Psychiatric Boundary
24 Insomnia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663
Karl Doghramji, M.D.
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
Contributors
xiii
xiv Textbook of Medical Psychiatry
Professor Sir Simon Wessely, M.A., B.M., B.Ch., M.Sc., M.D., FRCP, FRCPsych,
FMedSci
Regius Professor of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience,
King’s College London; President, Royal Society of Medicine; Past President, Royal
College of Psychiatrists
Disclosure of Interests
The following contributors to this textbook have indicated a financial interest in or other affiliation with
a commercial supporter, manufacturer of a commercial product, and/or provider of a commercial service
as listed below:
Margo D. Lauterbach, M.D. Equity Interest: One-third owner of Brain Educators LLC, publishers
of The Brain Card®.
Charles B. Nemeroff, M.D., Ph.D. Research Grants: National Institutes of Health (NIH), Stan-
ley Medical Research Institute; Consultant: Bracket (Clintara), Fortress Biotech, Gerson Lehr-
man Group (GLG) Healthcare and Biomedical Council, Janssen Research and Development
LLC, Magstim Inc, Prismic Pharmaceuticals, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Sunovion Phar-
maceuticals Inc, Taisho Pharmaceutical Inc, Takeda, Total Pain Solutions (TPS), and Xhale;
Stock Holdings: Abbvie, OPKO Health Inc, Antares, Bracket Intermediate Holding Corp, Cel-
gene, Network Life Sciences Inc, Seattle Genetics, and Xhale; Scientific Advisory Board: Ameri-
can Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), Anxiety Disorders Association of America
(ADAA), Bracket (Clintara), Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) (formerly
named National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression [NARSAD]), Laure-
ate Institute for Brain Research Inc, RiverMend Health LLC, Skyland Trail, and Xhale; Board of
Directors: ADAA, AFSP, and Gratitude America; Income or Equity ($10,000 or more): American
Psychiatric Publishing, Bracket (Clintara), CME Outfitters, Takeda, and Xhale; Patents: U.S.
6,375,990B1 (method and devices for transdermal delivery of lithium) and U.S. 7,148,027B2
(method of assessing antidepressant drug therapy via transport inhibition of monoamine neu-
rotransmitters by ex vivo assay).
Peter A. Shapiro, M.D. Dr. Shapiro affirms that he has no financial conflicts of interest to disclose.
Supported in part by the Nathaniel Wharton Fund, New York.
Paul Summergrad, M.D. Nonpromotional Speaking: CME Outfitters Inc, Lundbeck Foundation;
Consultant: Compass Pathways, Mental Health Data Services, Pear Therapeutics; Stock or Stock
Options: Karuna Therapeutics, Mental Health Data Services, Pear Therapeutics, Quartet Health;
Royalties: American Psychiatric Association Publishing, Harvard University Press, Springer Pub-
lishing Company.
The following contributors stated that they had no competing interests during the year pre-
ceding manuscript submission:
Rolando L. Gonzalez, M.D.; Janna Gordon-Elliott, M.D.; Philip R. Muskin, M.D., M.A.; John
Querques, M.D.; Joseph Rencic, M.D.; Peter A. Shapiro, M.D.; David A. Silbersweig, M.D.; Joji Su-
zuki, M.D.
Foreword
I am sure many of the readers of this textbook will have been to London at some
stage in their lives, and no doubt seen all the wonderful sights. But unless you were
there on medical business, it is unlikely that you visited the part of London known as
Denmark Hill, once voted London’s ugliest hill. If you had, you would have visited
the embodiment of Cartesian dualism, caught here in all its splendor in what my gen-
eration still call a map.
What would you be looking at? As you walked down the hill, you would notice on
your right the front of the Maudsley Hospital—which opened in 1916 for shell-
shocked soldiers, before becoming a civilian mental hospital once the war was over—
the first in Britain to see outpatients. For over a hundred years, it has been one of the
few “brand names” in the world of psychiatry. If you looked to your left, you would
see King’s College Hospital. Named after King Edward VII, it is of the same vintage as
the Maudsley—a large general hospital, with a busy emergency department and even
a helipad on the roof, on which helicopters land with seriously injured people from all
over South London, creating a din that brings all other business to a temporary halt.
xxi
xxii Textbook of Medical Psychiatry
You might think that because of the close proximity of these two huge and distin-
guished institutions, they would be umbilically linked at every level. But you would
be wrong. When I started working in Denmark Hill, my interest in general hospital
psychiatry combined with a wish to develop a career in academic psychiatry meant
that I had a presence on both sides of the road—clinically in the general hospital, but
academically over in the Maudsley—or the Institute of Psychiatry, as its research hub
was called. My boss, Robin Murray, also had a foot in both camps, being both Profes-
sor of Psychological Medicine at the King’s College Medical School, on the left side of
the road, and also Dean of Psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital, on the right. And I
think that was it. Of the more than 5,000 people who worked at the two sites, just the
two of us braved the traffic to cross Denmark Hill on a regular basis. Things got a bit
better—well, safer—when the local council finally invested in a pedestrian traffic
light, making the passage across Denmark Hill a little less hazardous, but still only a
handful of physicians followed our footsteps.
Things are different now. There is a reasonably flourishing colony of mental health
professionals who work in the A and E (accident and emergency services) at King’s
or who are scattered about the wards and clinics. There is a larger group of research-
ers who have shifted across the road, attracted by the new neuroscience building or
the space in some of the labs that are dotted around King’s. Traffic the other way, I
have to say, remains slower—our colleagues in general medicine still seem reluctant
to set foot on the psychiatric side of the street, preferring that we move our patients
the hundred yards or so over to them. Academic collaborations have developed in
many areas, but clinical links less so. We psychiatrists go to Grand Rounds at King’s,
but only the neurologists are regularly encountered at the clinical meetings in the
Maudsley.
It is a pity that more of my colleagues were not exposed to a book like this one early
in their careers. If they had been, I think that the now-increasing numbers of health
professionals prepared to brave the traffic and cross Denmark Hill in either direction
would have become a stampede. Because—as so beautifully shown—those patients
who end up with “medical” disorders on the King’s side of the road are very likely to
also experience a range of “mental” problems, either neuropsychiatric symptoms spe-
cific to their illness or more general reactions to having a serious physical illness. One
of my psychiatric colleagues, Anthony David, who teaches medical students on the
King’s side of the road, often asks his students to find a patient willing to come along
to his teaching session, so that he can teach the students the fundamentals of psychi-
atry. The students panic—What kind of patient does he mean? From where? He
merely smiles, says it really doesn’t matter: Find anyone on any ward, in any clinic,
or even in any of the coffee bars that patients frequent. Just bring them along. And
invariably, as he starts to talk to the patient with the students watching, there is some-
thing that can be learned about the mind from anyone on the “physical” side of the
road.
And it works both ways. One of the criticisms that can be leveled against psychia-
trists is the often-poor physical health of the patients on our side of the road. It re-
mains a scandal that a person with a major mental illness will have, on average, a life
expectancy that is 15 years shorter than the life expectancy of a person without such
an illness. We pay insufficient attention to the role that physical illness plays in the
mental illnesses we study, nor are we doing anything like as much as we should in
Foreword xxiii
treating the consequences of the lifestyles that so many of our patents are forced to
adopt—or the consequences of the treatments that we give them.
And then there are the vast numbers of patients who are found in the middle of
Denmark Hill. Before you turn pale, I should clarify that I am referring metaphori-
cally to those patients who are not comfortable, and occasionally not welcomed, on
either side of the road—those with disorders that do not fall easily into one camp or
the other; patients with chronic pain, for example, or with unexplained symptoms
and syndromes that are hard to classify and sometimes even harder to manage. All
too often, physicians tell these patients that there is nothing wrong with them and
send them across the road, only for psychiatrists to swiftly turn them back, saying
that no formal mental illness is present. Such patients are left languishing in the “no
man’s land” that lies between King’s and the Maudsley. And some patients even pre-
fer it that way, so great is the stigma of being seen on the “wrong” side of the road; it
is not until they meet either a general or a family medicine doctor who is comfortable
with both sides of the road—or, alternatively, find a very skillful physician or psychi-
atrist who is able to navigate these sometimes-choppy waters—that they receive any
care at all.
So what is the solution? We could perhaps merge the two sides of the road, declare
Denmark Hill traffic-free, remove the portals, and ensure that the signposts—and, of
course, the standards used in the buildings and architecture—are uniform. But failing
that, the best solution would be for everyone who works on either side of the Carte-
sian Divide that is Denmark Hill—a Divide that is just as pervasive in the United
States as it is in the United Kingdom—to read this book.
xxv
xxvi Textbook of Medical Psychiatry
have MDD post–acute coronary syndromes (Lichtman et al. 2014). Of course, there are
other psychiatric illnesses, including substance use, that are associated with impaired
medical outcomes, including medical disorders such as liver disease, cardiomyopathy,
endocarditis, and lung cancer. The impact of the current opioid epidemic and its inter-
action with other mental disorders and general medical mortality is highly significant
(Case and Deaton 2015; Olfson et al. 2018). Lifestyle and behavioral contributions are
risk factors for chronic illness, including late-life noncommunicable diseases (Murray
et al. 2013).
Although we remain mindful of this broader context, in this textbook we primarily
focus on a specific subsection of illnesses: medical disorders that can cause psychiat-
ric symptoms. As young physicians, we became aware of these clinical presentations
during our training. For one of us (P.S.), it was as an internal medicine resident in a
busy academic medical center where a bevy of patients with delirium, agitation, hal-
lucinations, or psychotic illness had other medical disorders that were causing their
symptoms. Hepatic, metabolic, infectious, and neurological disorders were frequent.
Young men with dysregulated behavior (either aggressive or overly placid) had brain
injuries that were directly causative of their changed behavior. An older patient re-
ceiving high-dose intravenous steroids to prevent a transplant rejection presented in
a new-onset manic state. An elderly woman with wide-based gait, incontinence, and
abulic affect was found to have extensive white matter hypodensities on central ner-
vous system imaging and a vascular depression responsive to antidepressants. An-
other woman thought to have a depression lacked cognitive changes or mood symp-
toms consistent with MDD. Her worsening weakness and motor difficulties were
soon revealed as severe myasthenia gravis. For another one of us (D.A.S.), it was dual
training in neurology and psychiatry that allowed the consideration of the interface
between the medical and the psychiatric being mediated by brain disease. Among
these clinical experiences, a considerable number involved patients with multiple
sclerosis and pseudobulbar affect, epilepsy and postictal psychosis, Parkinson’s dis-
ease and panic attacks, and frontotemporal dementias with personality and behavior
changes. In such cases, the diagnosis, management, and discussions with the patients
and their families were all informed by a convergent neuropsychiatric view that tran-
scends the typical neurological-psychiatric distinctions.
In all of these scenarios and in countless others that occur daily in hospitals, clinics,
and doctor’s offices, patients present with psychiatric symptoms caused by their
medical disorders. Psychiatric symptoms due to other medical conditions can be as
complex and disabling as classic psychiatric illnesses whose etiology is unknown.
The fact that psychiatric syndromes can be well-described sequelae of medical disor-
ders is often unfamiliar to our patients, their families, and the general public. Because
of their rarity, many of these syndromes may also be unfamiliar to physicians and
other clinicians. Indeed, there is an older literature that suggests a tendency for phy-
sicians to underdiagnose medical disorders, whether causative or not, in patients
with psychiatric illness (Hall et al. 1978; Koranyi 1979).
The proper and careful consideration of all of the medical issues facing patients
with psychiatric symptoms is important for several reasons, but primarily because
such an approach is good medical practice. The high comorbidity of psychiatric and
medical disorders and the shortened longevity of patients with psychiatric illness
xxviii Textbook of Medical Psychiatry
References
American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th
Edition. Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013
Bloom DE, Cafero ET, Jané-Llopis E, et al: The Global Economic Burden of Noncommunicable
Diseases. Geneva, Switzerland, World Economic Forum, 2011
Case A, Deaton A: Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Amer-
icans in the 21st century. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112(49):15078–15083, 2015 26575631
Dorning H, Davies A, Blunt I: Focus on: people with mental ill health and hospital use. Nuffield
Trust QualityWatch, Oct 10, 2015. Available at: https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/re-
search/focus-on-people-with-mental-ill-health-and-hospital-use. Accessed August 17,
2019.
Druss BG, Walker ER: Mental Disorders and Medical Comorbidity. Research Synthesis Report
No 21. Princeton, NJ, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2011
Hall RCW, Popkin MK, Devaul RA, et al: Physical illness presenting as psychiatric disease.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 35(11):1315–1320, 1978 568461
Introduction xxxi
Koranyi EK: Morbidity and rate of undiagnosed physical illnesses in a psychiatric clinic popu-
lation. Arch Gen Psychiatry 36(4):414–419, 1979 426608
Lichtman JH, Froelicher ES, Blumenthal JA, et al: Depression as a risk factor for poor prognosis
among patients with acute coronary syndrome: systematic review and recommendations.
A scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation 129(12):1350–
1369, 2014 24566200
Melek SP, Norris DT, Paulus J: Economic Impact of Integrated Medical-Behavioral Healthcare:
Implications for Psychiatry. Milliman American Psychiatric Association Report. Denver,
CO, Milliman, 2014
Melek SP, Norris DT, Paulus J, et al: Potential Economic Impact of Integrated Medical-Behav-
ioral Healthcare. Denver, CO, Milliman, 2018
Murray CJL, Atkinson C, Bhalla K, et al: The state of US health, 1990–2010: burden of diseases,
injuries, and risk factors. JAMA 310(6):591–608, 2013 23842577
Noble RA: Psychiatry today. N Engl J Med 208(21):1086–1091, 1933. Available at: https://
www.nejm.org/toc/nejm/208/21. Accessed June 2, 2019.
Olfson M, Crystal S, Wall M, et al: Causes of death after nonfatal opioid overdose. JAMA Psy-
chiatry 75(8):820–827, 2018 29926090
Schroeder SA, Morris CD: Confronting a neglected epidemic: tobacco cessation for persons
with mental illnesses and substance abuse problems. Annu Rev Public Health 31:297–314,
2010 20001818
Walker ER, McGee RE, Druss BG: Mortality in mental disorders and global disease burden im-
plications: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry 72(4):334–341, 2015
25671328
PART I
Approach to the Patient
CHAPTER 1
An Internist’s Approach
to the
Neuropsychiatric Patient
Joseph Rencic, M.D.
Deeb Salem, M.D.
3
4 Textbook of Medical Psychiatry
What Is Diagnosis?
Diagnosis traditionally has been viewed as an analytic reasoning process akin to the
scientific method. Early clinical observations or patient complaints trigger hypothe-
ses. A clinician tests these hypotheses by obtaining additional historical and physical
examination data to determine the merits of the competing hypotheses. The physi-
cian synthesizes the relevant data to create a composite of the patient’s clinical find-
ings, called a problem representation (Bowen 2006). A clinician finds the best match for
this problem representation from the mental representations of diseases that he or she
has developed through experience and study. If no diagnosis reaches a probability of
disease above which the clinician believes that the benefits of treatment outweigh the
risks of further testing (i.e., threshold to treat), the clinician obtains additional collat-
eral history and laboratory or radiological data until the data reach the threshold to
treat.
(1) high-level, precompiled, conceptual knowledge structures, which are (2) stored in
long-term memory, which (3) represent general (stereotyped) event sequences, in
which (4) the individual events are interconnected by temporal and often also causal or
hierarchical relationships, that (5) can be activated as integral wholes in appropriate
An Internist’s Approach to the Neuropsychiatric Patient 5
contexts, that (6) contain variables and slots that can be filled with information present
in the actual situation, retrieved from memory, or inferred from the context, and that (7)
develop as a consequence of routinely performed activities or viewing such activities
being performed; in other words, through direct or vicarious experience. (Custers 2015,
p. 457)
For example, a restaurant script includes waiting to be seated, ordering drinks and
then your meal, tipping the waiter, and so on. One follows this routine or script with-
out thinking. Script theory was transferred to the diagnostic literature through the
term illness scripts (Clancey 1983). Illness scripts describe clinicians’ mental represen-
tations of “the stories of diseases”: their clinical findings, associated risk factors, and
pathophysiology. For example, a psychiatrist may rapidly recognize the script or pat-
tern of a depressive disorder in a sad, anhedonic patient with a flat affect and a family
history of depression. Each clinician has idiosyncratic illness scripts for a given dis-
ease based on experience and “book knowledge.” Illness script theory provides valu-
able insights into nonanalytic rapid diagnostic reasoning.
Accurate, comprehensive knowledge of illness scripts distinguishes expert and
experienced clinicians from novices (Elstein et al. 1978). This knowledge forms the ba-
sis for heuristics (i.e., mental “rules of thumb”) and pattern recognition, in which a
clinician will mentally try to match a patient’s presenting clinical findings with the
appropriate illness script. Given the complexity of medical diagnosis, the accuracy of
diagnostic reasoning is remarkable, and errors occur because of bias or misapplica-
tion of heuristics. The literature describes more than 30 different types of heuristics
and biases (e.g., availability, representativeness), but the specifics are less important
than the recognition that a clinician should seek ways to minimize these errors. The
most common suggested “antidote” to nonanalytic reasoning–based diagnostic er-
rors is for a clinician to force a “double-check” of the diagnosis with analytic reason-
ing, via a cognitive forcing strategy. For example, a clinician feels confident or certain
about a diagnosis of major depressive disorder but chooses to review the medical dif-
ferential diagnosis of depression and orders a thyroid-stimulating hormone level test
to evaluate for hypothyroidism. The notion of a double-check on nonanalytic reason-
ing leads directly to a consideration of analytic reasoning. Given the tendency of
many clinicians to discount medical causes of psychiatric symptoms and, conversely,
psychiatric causes of general medical symptoms, an awareness of the limitations of
implicit scripts is particularly important in this area.
Neuropsychiatric Diagnosis
If one considers psychiatry in the context of the six traditional approaches to medical
analytic reasoning, it can be said that descriptive reasoning served as the primary ap-
proach to diagnosis until the period of neuroanatomic and infectious disease–related
investigation in the late nineteenth century (e.g., the work of psychiatrists Alois Alz-
heimer and Solomon Carter Fuller in dementia-related illness), when classification
schemes emerged for the purpose of collecting census data on mental illness. These
classification efforts began with the 1952 publication of DSM-I but were more fully re-
alized with the 1980 publication of DSM-III, which ushered in an emphasis on crite-
ria-based diagnosis in psychiatry (American Psychiatric Association 1952, 1980). The
predominance of this analytic tradition in psychiatry, in the philosophical sense,
stems from the limited pathophysiological knowledge of psychiatric conditions, the
lack of “objective” gold standards for the diagnosis of most conditions (Kapur et al.
2012), and the historic tendency for diagnoses with clearer pathophysiology or etiol-
ogies (e.g., the psychoses associated with tertiary syphilis) to be subsumed by other
branches of medical practice. In addition, many of the descriptive criteria for psychi-
atric illnesses include physical symptoms but are not normed in populations that are
medically ill or complex. Such an approach is not limited to psychiatry. For example,
the American College of Rheumatology has created a set of diagnostic criteria (i.e.,
American College of Rheumatology–endorsed criteria for rheumatic diseases) for dis-
eases within the subspecialty’s purview, because rheumatologists face the same diag-
nostic challenges that psychiatrists do (American College of Rheumatology 2017).
Psychiatric diagnosis, especially when dependent on experience-based implicit
scripts, is even more difficult if we consider the behavioral disturbances of some psy-
chiatric illnesses, such as those that occur with somatic symptom disorder and some
An Internist’s Approach to the Neuropsychiatric Patient 7
A B C
Medical
disease
Medical disease Psychiatric disease
Psychiatric
and/or physical
Psychiatric Physical
symptoms symptoms
Psychiatric
disease
FIGURE 1–1. Diagnostic possibilities for mixed physical and psychiatric symptomatology.
(A) Primary medical disease that causes psychiatric symptoms not related to any coexisting psychiatric
disease. (B) Primary psychiatric disease that causes physical symptoms not related to any coexisting med-
ical disease. (C) Primary medical and psychiatric diseases in which physical and/or psychiatric symptoms
are caused or exacerbated by both diseases.
diagnostic strategies that can lead psychiatrists or other physicians astray when they
are dealing with medically confusing presentations. In addition, confirmation bias
(i.e., overvaluing data that support one’s leading hypothesis and undervaluing data
that do not) can lead a clinician to ignore or even fail to collect data relevant to a pos-
sible medical diagnosis.
TABLE 1–1. Checklist of risk factorsa suggesting the need for a comprehensive
medical examination to identify potential medical causes of
psychiatric symptoms
New-onset psychiatric symptoms after age 45 years or new onset of psychotic illness at any age
Advanced age (≥65 years)
Abnormal vital signs
Cognitive deficits (decreased level of awareness)
Delirium, severe agitation, or visual hallucinations
Focal neurological findings
Evidence of head injury
Evidence of toxic ingestion
a
Any one of these findings would merit a comprehensive medical examination.
Source. Adapted from recommendation 2 (p. 643) in Wilson MP, Nordstrom K, Anderson EL, et al.:
“American Association for Emergency Psychiatry Task Force on Medical Clearance of Adult Psychiatric
Patients. Part II: Controversies Over Medical Assessment, and Consensus Recommendations.” The West-
ern Journal of Emergency Medicine 18(4):640–646, 2017.
Approaching from a different angle the dilemma posed by mixed physical and
psychiatric symptoms, Shah et al. (2012) developed a screening algorithm designed
to identify patients with psychiatric manifestations of a medical disease who could be
directly referred for psychiatric evaluation without further medical workup or labo-
ratory testing. This algorithm consisted of five criteria, all of which needed to be met
for “medical clearance” and discharge to a psychiatric receiving facility:
fore making a final diagnosis, even when it seems unnecessary. In terms of the best
strategy, a recent meta-analysis found that a reflection-based CFS focused on verifica-
tion of an initial diagnostic hypothesis, through either a protocol or a differential
diagnosis checklist, improved accuracy on paper- or Web-based clinical vignettes,
whereas a reflection-based CFS focused on general reflection (e.g., “Reconsider your
diagnosis”) or cognitive “debiasing” (e.g., metacognitive self-reminders to “Be aware
of your biases”) did not (Norman et al. 2017). A typical diagnostic verification CFS
protocol is presented in Table 1–2 (Mamede et al. 2008). In two studies in which in-
ternal medicine residents used a diagnostic verification protocol to check their initial
diagnoses in paper-based simulated diagnostic problems, investigators found that
this type of CFS protocol increased diagnostic accuracy by up to 40% (Mamede et al.
2008, 2010). This improvement occurred primarily with difficult cases, when initial
diagnostic accuracy was less than 50% (Mamede and Schmidt 2017).
when patients fail to respond as expected or their clinical course is atypical. Obtaining
a second opinion from a colleague in the same or another specialty can be important.
This is especially true when the patient has an acute onset of new illness, subtle neu-
rological signs, an atypical presentation, or an unexpected response to treatment. For
all physicians, maintaining clinical humility, being aware of the high rate of error in
all medical diagnostic processes, and appreciating the complexity of clinical decision
making are important.
The following case examples illustrate the recommended approach:
Case 1
A 22-year-old woman presented with acute psychosis (of 2 weeks' duration), associated
with persecutory delusions, aggression, and visual and auditory hallucinations; she
also had experienced a single focal seizure of her right hand 1 week before the symp-
toms began (Kukreti et al. 2015). This patient has visual hallucinations, which (accord-
ing to the risk factor checklist in Table 1–1) would necessitate a comprehensive medical
evaluation that can be performed by a psychiatrist or a consultant. Her physical exam-
ination was normal. Laboratory testing showed a lymphocytic pleocytosis. Testing for
herpes simplex virus was negative; brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and elec-
troencephalogram (EEG) findings were normal. She was discharged on antipsychotic
and antiseizure medications but returned 1 week later with a recurrent focal seizure. At
this point, a careful analytic approach or a checklist of diagnoses that cause acute psy-
chosis and seizures with normal MRI and EEG findings could help to rule out “can’t
miss” diagnoses. The health professionals caring for the patient recognized the possi-
bility of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antibody-mediated encephalitis.
NMDAR antibody testing was positive, confirming the diagnosis, and led to effective
treatment with plasmapheresis and corticosteroids.
This case illustrates the potential value of a careful assessment of risk factors (as
described in Table 1–1) to reduce the risk of medical misdiagnosis.
Case 2
A 38-year-old woman presented with depression and unremarkable physical exami-
nation findings (Marian et al. 2009). She was initially treated with fluoxetine without
significant improvement over a 2-month period. She returned to the clinic but now pre-
sented with palpitations, a fine hand tremor, subtle exophthalmos, and mild weight
12 Textbook of Medical Psychiatry
This case illustrates the atypical presentations of thyroid-related disorders and the
importance of thyroid screening—with the relatively inexpensive thyroid-stimulat-
ing hormone level test—for most, if not all, patients with psychiatric presentations.
Conclusion
Neuropsychiatric diagnosis is a particularly challenging task because of a relative
paucity of definitive, “objective” signs or laboratory findings for many psychiatric ill-
nesses. Diagnostic cognitive strategies in psychiatry, descriptive and criterion-based,
also tend to be normed so as not to consider the role of other medical disorders as
causes of psychiatric presentations. Although future research is likely to identify valu-
able diagnostic biomarkers, psychiatrists need strategies that they can use now to re-
duce the risk of medical misdiagnosis.
In this chapter, we provided two suggested strategies—a risk factor checklist (see
Table 1–1) and a diagnostic verification CFS protocol (see Table 1–2)—for reducing
error and enhancing accuracy in the diagnosis of medical symptoms presenting as
psychiatric illness. Although some evidence supports these strategies, future research
is needed to confirm their utility.
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CHAPTER 2
The Neurological
Examination
for Neuropsychiatric
Assessment
Sheldon Benjamin, M.D.
Margo D. Lauterbach, M.D.
15
16 Textbook of Medical Psychiatry
Neurological toolkit
Disposable gloves
Digital pulse oximeter
Stethoscope
Sphygmomanometer (automated variety will record data)
Small flashlight with adjustable intensity
Fundoscope with panoptic head (to facilitate easy viewing)
Scented lip balm (for testing olfaction)
Snellen card (for testing visual acuity)
Optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) strip
Tongue depressors (wrapped)
Wooden applicator sticks (wrapped)
Disposable cup (for testing swallow)
Measuring tape
Reflex hammer
128 Hz and 256 Hz tuning forks
Two-point discriminator or note card with prepunched points (for testing of
two-point discrimination)
Coin, paper clip, key (for stereognosis testing)
Optional: Sparking wheel toy (for testing of eye movements in less cooperative
patients)
Cognitive toolkit
Clipboard
Plain white paper
Pencil and fine felt-tip pen (bleeds when patient’s hand remains in one position)
Copies of any standard rating scales needed (also see Table 2–2)
Copies of bedside cognitive testing stimuli
Some helpful smartphone/tablet applications
OKN Strips
PseudoChromatic ColorTest
Digital Finger Tapping Test
Face2Gene (for identification of dysmorphic facies)
Neuropsychiatric examination pocket reference
The Brain Card® (Benjamin and Lauterbach 2016)
cutaneous signs, and general body habitus, in addition to the usual components such
as cardiopulmonary auscultation.
Certain dysmorphic features increase the likelihood of the presence of abnormal
brain development. For example, midline defects such as hypertelorism, which is
present in several congenital syndromes, may prompt an examiner to consider partial
agenesis of the corpus callosum. Microcephaly or macrocephaly often runs in families;
thus, a family history of head size must be obtained before assuming abnormal brain
development. Absent a family history of large head size, the thresholds for macro-
The Neurological Examination 17
cephaly are 58.4 cm in males and 57.5 cm in females. Areas to examine for commonly
observed dysmorphic features are listed in Table 2–3. Phenotyping applications are
available from Face2Gene.com to assist in identifying dysmorphic syndromes. At a
minimum, the examiner should be able to recognize the typical physiognomies of
Down, fragile X, velocardiofacial, and fetal alcohol syndromes (see also Chapter 16,
“Neurodevelopmental Disorders”).
The clinician must take special note of cutaneous signs in the general physical
examination, because the skin and nervous system share a common embryonic ecto-
dermal origin. Neurocutaneous syndromes may be associated with normal develop-
ment, typically in the carrier state; or they may be associated with seizures, behavior
changes, and intellectual disability in the fully expressed syndrome. The most com-
mon neurocutaneous signs are listed in Table 2–4.
The general physical examination also can give clues to the presence of diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, or heavy cigarette smoking, any of which can increase the risk
for vascular dementia. Excessive neck circumference, when combined with snoring,
an enlarged upper torso, and small oropharyngeal opening, suggests the possibility of
obstructive sleep apnea. Auscultation for carotid bruits is commonly done during neu-
rological examination; however, bruits detected during carotid auscultation are often
not predictive of critical stenosis when followed up with an ultrasound evaluation.
tem than of localized lesions. Children with prematurity, low birth weight, or malnu-
trition may have neurological soft signs as well (Whitty et al. 2009). The relation of
neurological soft signs to the pathophysiology of mental illness is unclear, but these
signs appear to decrease as psychiatric symptoms improve (Mittal et al. 2007). The
neurodevelopmental signs in Table 2–5 are divided into signs that are nonlateralizing
(i.e., those that do not correlate with focal brain dysfunction) and those that are poten-
tially lateralizing (i.e., those that may be associated with focal brain dysfunction).
Cranial Nerves
Loss of olfaction (in the absence of chronic rhinitis or chronic smoking) may be a sign
of early neurodegenerative disease, white matter disease, orbitofrontal mass lesions,
The Neurological Examination 19
Nonlateralizing signs
Dysarthria Dysphagia
Inability to move eyes without moving Nystagmus
head Slow or irregular rapid alternating
Clumsiness, incoordination movements
Drooling Bradykinesia
Ataxia Overflow/mirror movements
or traumatic brain injury (TBI), although it also occurs in normal aging. Bedside test-
ing of olfaction can be accomplished with scented lip balm or multiple-choice scratch-
and-sniff olfactory testing cards, if available (Doty 2015).
Assessment of the optic nerve includes direct inspection (fundoscopy) as well as
testing of visual acuity (by reading a Snellen card at 14 inches), testing of visual fields
to confrontation, and testing of pupillary light reflexes and accommodation. Visual
acuity is customarily recorded by writing the acuity numbers to the right of a capital
V, with the right eye above the left, as shown in Figure 2–1A. When testing fields to
confrontation by moving a wiggling finger in from the periphery in each quadrant,
extinction to double simultaneous stimulation is assessed by simultaneously wig-
gling the fingers in both of the upper or lower quadrants. Pupillary light reflexes are
tested by shining a flashlight obliquely, first at one pupil and then at the other, with
the patient staring straight ahead into the distance, and observing for direct and con-
sensual pupillary responses. An afferent pupillary defect will cause the abnormal
pupil to dilate when the light swings over it in the swinging flashlight test. While
shining a light on both pupils simultaneously, the clinician should note whether the
light aligns at the same “o’clock” on both pupils. Misalignment indicates dysconju-
gate gaze. Rather than just recording “PERRLA” (i.e., pupils equal, round, reactive to
light, accommodation), recording the pupillary diameters is helpful for later compar-
ison. This is customarily done by writing the number of millimeters of pupillary
diameter to the right of the letter P instead of the E in PERRLA. The right pupillary
diameter is recorded above the left, as shown in Figure 2–1B.
Ocular motility is tested by having the patient follow a stimulus and move the eyes
to command, and by observing the patient’s eye movement while the examiner
moves the patient's head vertically and horizontally. The patient is instructed to fol-
low the examiner’s finger with his or her eyes while the examiner moves a forefinger
in an “H” pattern in order to test the extraocular muscles in isolation. Saccadic intru-
sions (also called square-wave jerks) during pursuit testing may indicate cerebellar
dysfunction. Saccadic intrusions also can be present in Parkinson’s disease, progres-
sive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and schizophrenia.
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so, that those who have management in a good object must
themselves be good.
X.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
Fénélon could with ease bring from the arsenal of tradition even
more proofs than he needed for the establishment of his doctrine. No
prevarication or sophistry could conceal the fact that Bernard,
Albertus Magnus, Francis de Sales, Theresa, Catharine of Genoa,
and other saints, had used language concerning pure love,
authenticating more than all that Fénélon was solicitous to defend.
Thus much was proven,—even subtracting those passages which
Fénélon unwittingly cited from an edition of De Sales’ Entretiens,
said to be full of interpolations. The spiritual history of Friar Laurent
and of Francis de Sales furnished actual examples of the most
extreme case Fénélon was willing to put. Bossuet’s true answer was
the reply he gave on the question to Madame de la Maisonfort,—
such rare and extraordinary cases should be left out of our
consideration, they should not be drawn within the range of possible
experience, even for Christians considerably advanced. (Phelipeaux,
liv. i. pp. 165-176.) In dispute with Fénélon, instead of admitting the
fact, as with La Maisonfort, the polemic gets uppermost, and he tries
very dishonestly to explain away the language of De Sales, while he
misrepresents and garbles that of Fénélon. See Cinquième Lettre en
Réponse à divers Ecrits; Première Lettre en Réponse à celle de M.
L’Evêque de Meaux; Maximes des Saints, art. v.
Fénélon draws a subtile distinction between the object of love and
the motive of love. That love in God which renders him our eternal
blessedness, is among the objects of our love—for God has so
revealed himself, but is not the motive of it. (Max. des Saints, art. iv.)
Do we desire happiness less, he asks, because we desire it from a
worthy motive,—i.e., as desired by God? Do we extinguish hope by
exalting and regulating it? (Entretiens sur la Religion; Œuvres, tom. i.
p. 35.) If any one of us knew that he should be annihilated at death,
ought he less to love the infinitely Good? Is not eternal life a gift
which God is free to grant or to withhold? Shall the love of the
Christian who is to have eternal life be less than that of him who
anticipates annihilation, just because the love of God to him is so
much more? Shall such a gift serve only to make love interested?
(Sur le Pur Amour, xix. Compare also Max. des Saints, art. 10, 11,
12; Correspondance, let. 43.)
Fénélon is very careful to state that disinterested love is put to its
most painful proof only in rare and extreme cases,—that the love
which is interested is not a sin, only a lower religious stage, and that
he who requires that staff is to beware how he throws it aside
prematurely, ambitious of a spiritual perfection which may be beyond
his reach. Bossuet endeavoured to show that if Fénélon’s doctrine
were true, any love except the disinterested was a crime.
(Instructions et Avis, &c., xx.; Sur le Pur Amour, p. 329; Max. des
Saints, art. iii., and sundry qualifications of importance, concerning
self-abandonment in the ‘épreuves extrêmes,’ art. ix.)
L’activité que les mystiques blâment n’est pas l’action réelle et la co-
opération de l’âme à la grâce; c’est seulement une crainte inquiète,
ou une ferveur empressée qui recherche les dons de Dieu pour sa
propre consolation.—Lettres Spirituelles, xiii. So also, in the letter to
La Maisonfort, he shows that the state of passivity does not preclude
a great number of distinct acts. This is what the mystics call co-
operating with God without activity of our own—a subtlety which
those may seek to understand who care. Fénélon means to forbid a
selfish isolation, which, on pretence of quietude, neglects daily duty.
True repose in God calmly discharges such obligations as they
come. We have seen an example of this in St. Theresa. Fénélon is
not prepared to go the length of John of the Cross, who denies our
co-operation altogether.—Maximes des Saints, art. xxx. and xxix. Ils
ne font plus d’actes empressés et marqués par une secousse
inquiète: ils font des actes si paisibles et si uniformes, que ces actes,
quoique très-réels, très-successifs, et même interrompus, leur
paraissent ou un seul acte sans interruption, ou un repos continuel.
Fénélon is at any time ready to endorse all the counsels of John of
the Cross, as to the duty of leaving behind (outre-passer) all
apparitions, sounds, tastes, everything visionary, sensuous, or
theurgic. With the grosser forms of mysticism he has no sympathy.
He even endeavours to represent St. Theresa as an advocate of the
purer and more refined mysticism, adducing the scarce-attainable
seventh Morada, and overlooking the sensuous character of the
preceding six. Theresa might, in the abstract, rate the visionless
altitude above the valley of vision; but she preferred, for herself,
unquestionably, the valley to the mountain. (Max. des Saints, xix.;
Lettres Spirituelles, xiv. xvi. xvii.) In a letter on extraordinary gifts, he
repeats the precept of John—‘Aller toujours par le non-voir;’ and
‘outre-passer les grands dons, et marcher dans la pure foi comme si
on ne les avait pas reçus.’ He consigns the soul, in like manner, to a
blank abstraction—to what Luther would have called ‘a void tedium.’
Tout ce qui est goût et ferveur sensible, image créée, lumière
distincte et aperçue, donne une fausse confiance, et fait une
impression trop vive; on les reçoit avec joie, et on les quitte avec
peine. Au contraire, dans la nudité de la pure foi, on ne doit rien voir;
on n’a plus en soi ni pensée ni volonté; on trouve tout dans cette
simplicité générale, sans s’arrêter à rien de distinct; on ne possède
rien, mais on est possédé.—Lettre xxiii. The very acts of which
Contemplation is made up, are, says Fénélon—‘Si simples, si
directs, si paisibles, si uniformes, qu’ils n’ont rien de marqué par où
l’âme puisse les distinguer.’—Max. des Saints, art. xxi. What such
acts can be, must remain for ever a mystery unfathomable. It is for
these inexplicable ‘actes distincts’ that the convenient ‘facilité
spéciale’ is provided. (Correspondance, lettre 43; comp. Lettres
Spirituelles, xiii. 448.)
Fénélon is also careful to guard his mysticism against the pretences
of special revelation and any troublesome insubordination on the
part of the ‘inner light,’ or l’attrait intérieur. The said ‘attrait,’ he justly
observes, ‘n’est point une inspiration miraculeuse et prophétique, qui
rende l’âme infaillible, ni impeccable, ni indépendante, de la direction
des pasteurs; ce n’est que la grâce, qui est sans cesse prévenante
dans tous les justes, et qui est plus spéciale dans les âmes élevées
par l’amour désintéressé,’ &c.—Loc. cit. p. 450; Max. des Saints, art.
xxix. and vii.
Note to page 262.