« Sweden bound for Scandinavian cognitive science | Main | Exploding head syndrome »

May 07, 2009

Paranoia espresso:

Photo by Flickr user bitzcelt. Click for sourceA case study just out in CNS Spectrums describes an apparent case of 'caffeine-induced psychosis'. The summary is below although the full paper is available online as a pdf.

If you're a regular coffee drinker, I don't think you should worry though. It's impossible to say whether caffeine was the definite cause in this case, and the gentleman concerned was drinking about 36 cups of coffee a day.

Caffeine-induced psychosis

Hedges DW, Woon FL, Hoopes SP.

As a competitive adenosine antagonist, caffeine affects dopamine transmission and has been reported to worsen psychosis in people with schizophrenia and to cause psychosis in otherwise healthy people. We report of case of apparent chronic caffeine-induced psychosis characterized by delusions and paranoia in a 47-year-old man with high caffeine intake. The psychosis resolved within 7 weeks after lowering caffeine intake without use of antipsychotic medication. Clinicians might consider the possibility of caffeinism when evaluating chronic psychosis.


pdf of full-text article.
Link to PubMed entry for same.

—Vaughan.

Posted at May 7, 2009 08:00 AM

Comments

eliMordino says:

Reminds me of this excellent song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UsR9Ap41R8

Comment posted at May 11, 2009 02:18 PM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)


Remember me?