SUDDEN "BRAIN DEATH" IN SCHIZOPHRENIA WITH EXTENSIVE LESIONS IN THE CEREBRAL CORTEX

Abstract

Sudden "brain death" occurring in various psychoses is reported in the literature under the designations of "delirium acutum," "délire aigu," "tödliche Katatonie" and others. The symptoms and clinical course of this condition are apparently uniform, but there is no agreement as to its classification. Ladame¹ and Redalié² stated that the disorder is based on clinicopathologic findings which they classed as specific, while Scheidegger³ and Jahn and Greving⁴ expressed the belief that it is a syndrome and complication of various psychoses, usually schizophrenia. Stauder⁵ expressed the opinion that it is a definite disease unit because it usually occurs in hereditarily tainted persons with constitutional vasomotor instability who are otherwise physically and mentally normal. CLINICAL FEATURES The onset is abrupt; the duration is brief, usually from several days to a few weeks, and the outcome is always fatal. The symptoms are both mental and physical, the latter