Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0038187 (starvation)
 24,951 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Descriptions of visionary experience from written medieval sources are examined from a cross-cultural perspective. The mental states of the persons having the visions range from terminal illnesses, states of starvation, stress-related syndromes, dreams and hypnagogic states, and seemingly unremarkable mental states. Although a few of the visions elicited some skepticism on the part of contemporaries, most reports of visions were accepted at face value as bona fide visions, with no discernible differentiation between starvation visions, dreams, deliria of illnesses, and possible mental illness. Only four of the visions appeared causally related, by today's standards, to mentally illnesses. These persons were not recognized as mentally ill by their contemporaries. Since there was a recognition of mental illness in the Middle Ages, it would appear that such recognition was based on symptoms other than visions or hallucinations. It is also possible that hallucinations, as culturally supported phenomena, were not as available as forms of expression of psychoses in the Middle Ages as they are today. Such a possibility has interesting implications regarding the role of a culture in shaping the forms by which mental illnesses are expressed, recognized, and labeled.
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PMID:Visions and psychopathology in the Middle Ages. 703 74

In July 1995 about 15,000 people attempted to walk from the enclave of Srebrenica to free territory in Bosnia. Two-thirds were captured or killed. Many of the remainder experienced hallucinations on the march, leading them to believe they were the victims of chemical weapons. This paper reports extended structured interviews with 35 survivors, including three doctors, carried out a year later on behalf of Human Right Watch. The literature on the likeliest CW agent, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate (BZ), and on stress as a cause of hallucinations, is reviewed. While CW exposure cannot be ruled out, it is concluded that the hallucinations can be ascribed to the consequence of multiple stresses--artillery attacks, exhaustion due to lack of sleep, starvation, thirst and the effects of drinking unpurified water.
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PMID:Surviving the impossible: the long march from Srebrenica. An investigation of the possible use of chemical warfare agents. 963 68

Although anorexia nervosa emerged as a new syndrome in the second half of the 19th century, this clinical picture seemed to be unknown in the psychiatric hospitals or asylums. In asylum medicine, the commonly used concept of sitophobia to designate food refusal in the insane covered a wide variety of mental disturbances and cannot be plainly equated with anorexia nervosa. A major difference is the occurrence of hallucinations and delusions specifically centered around religion and digestion. Most probably, anorectic patients were not treated in asylums, but at home, in the doctor's office, or in general hospitals. This pattern may be partly attributed to the fact that both patients and doctors were focusing on symptoms of self-starvation like emaciation, constipation, and amenorrhea, which were primarily interpreted as referring to somatic diseases. Additionally, wealthy families probably preferred private care in water-cure establishments, sanatoria, and rest homes to the stigmatizing referral of their anorectic daughter to an asylum. Hence, the fact that late 19th-century institutionalized psychiatry was only incidentally confronted with anorexia nervosa may explain its lack of interest in the emerging syndrome.
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PMID:Food refusal and insanity: sitophobia and anorexia nervosa in Victorian asylums. 1074 45

A 19-year-old female presented with acute onset of bizarre behavior, confusion, auditory hallucinations, and delusions after two weeks on a 100 kcal/day diet. She had a normal neurological examination. Urinalysis showed ketones 4+. She had elevated antinuclear antibody (ANA) (320) and positive heterozygous factor V Leiden mutation. Magnetic resonance imaging brain scan showed hyperintensity in the ventroanterior nucleus of the left thalamus. Ventroanterior thalamic stroke has been associated with personality changes. This is the first case of starvation-induced thalamic psychosis in the setting of factor V Leiden mutation and elevated ANA. The patient improved with risperidone in one month.
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PMID:Starvation causes acute psychosis due to anterior thalamic infarction. 2053 Oct 59

Of the problems that complicate child-bearing, hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), or severe nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP), is likely one of the most painful with unrelenting retching and vomiting that can lead to measurable injuries such as Mallory-Weiss Syndrome and esophageal rupture, and/or subtle maternal cognitive impairments related to starvation and dehydration. Recognized hallmarks of HG include dehydration, ketonuria, weight loss over 5%, and electrolyte abnormalities not attributable to other causes. Historically providers regarded the hyperemetic as a difficult to treat patient with potentially underlying psychological problems. Sick patients who experience pain and suffering present challenges to care, not excepting NVP. Ill patients can be demanding and agitated. Agitation can be one of the early signs of delirium or altered mental status (AMS). AMS can include previously diagnosed psychiatric conditions as well as new onset of Wernicke's encephalopathy, deliria, insomnia, hallucinations and autoscopy, resulting from various etiologies including and not limited to medications, pain including pain from hunger, vomiting and retching, constipation, dehydration, altered electrolytes, hypoglycemia, malnutrition and sleep deprivation. AMS may have a subtle waxing and waning trajectory, making the condition difficult to diagnosis in early stages. What have not been well elucidated in AMS are subjective images and/or experiences. Whether all AMS experiences are similar is unknown. We believe there may be a transient alteration of cognitive status or "altered sensorium gestosis" (ASG), attributed to the direct insults of hyperemesis gravidarum which will be discussed herein. How prevalent ASG might be is unknown and needs further investigation.
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PMID:Hyperemesis gravidarum: a case of starvation and altered sensorium gestosis (ASG). 2461 34