Psychiatric manifestations of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease: Probable neuropathological correlates

Eleven cases of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD) were diagnosed at NIMHANS, Bangalore, between 1980-1992, The diagnosis tvas confirmed by necropsy (4), biopsy (2). The remaining cases were diagnosed by clinical and EEG features according to Master's criteria, Among these 11 cases, seven presented with significant psychiatric symptoms, All the seven cases analysed were male with an age range from 40-65 years. The average duration of symptoms before presentation was 2.4 months, The psychiatric symptoms observed were predominantly mood symptoms, paranoid ideation, hallucinatory behaviour suggesting auditory and visual hallucinations and disturbances of higher mental functions. This paper highlights varied psychiatric presentations in CJD patients which is seen in addition to dementia, An attempt is made to correlate psychiatric symptoms and neuropathological lesions found at autopsy among the four subjects to identify probable biological substrate.