Eponyms

Question 1

Angelman syndrome

Answer 1

Congenital syndrome of mental retardation and epilepsy that is distinctive for puppetlike movements, compulsive laughter, and heritability.

Question 2

Anton Syndrome

Answer 2

Condition of blindness in which patient denies he cannot see and confabulates; a particular type of anosognosia. This condition is classically but not exclusively associated with bilateral occipital cortex lesions.

Question 3

Balint syndrome

Answer 3

Constellation of symptoms that include fixation of gaze, neglect of objects in visual surroundings, and misreaching, usually due to bilateral superior parietooccipital lesions.

Question 4

Bell Mania

Answer 4

Disorganized hyperactivity (as opposed to waxy flexibility and rigidity in lethal catatonia) that can be fatal if untreated; the syndrome is rare, probably because of the widespread use of antipsychotics, and the eponym is antiquated.

Question 5

Binswanger Disease

Answer 5

A particular type of multi-infarct dementia (a subtype of DSM-IV Vascular Dementia) in which infarcts selectively affect the white matter.

Question 6

Briquet Syndrome

Answer 6

Somatization Disorder; the disorder of multiple somatic complaints across different organ systems as a manifestation of anxiety.

Question 7

Brueghel Syndrome

Answer 7

Trigeminal dystonia that affects the mouth, sometimes provoked by antipsychotics.

Question 8

Capgras Syndrome

Answer 8

The belief that strangers in disguise have replaced persons known to the patient.

Question 9

Charcot-Willbrand Syndrome

Answer 9

“Global cessation of dreaming”; the loss of all or part of dreaming after brain injury.

Question 10

Charles Bonnet Syndrome

Answer 10

Visual hallucinations in the context of reduced eyesight.

Question 11

Clerambault-Kandinsky Syndrome

Answer 11

The syndrome that includes any paranoid psychosis in which thought insertions predominate, regardless of etiology.

Question 12

[Cornelia] de Lange Syndrome

Answer 12

Congenital mental retardation distinctive for patients’ self-injury, hyperactivity, sleeplessness, and aggression.

Question 13

Cotard Syndrome

Answer 13

Patient’s belief that he does not exist, that part of him is not there (e.g., his organs), or that he is dead.

Question 14

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Answer 14

Rapidly progressive dementia caused by transmissible prions (proteinaceous infectious particles) and distinctive for ataxia, myoclonus, EEG triphasic waves, and the diffuse spongiform appearance of the patient’s brain after death.

Question 15

Da Costa Syndrome

Answer 15

Panic Disorder; the condition of debilitating anxiety attacks accompanied by attempts to avoid such attacks.

Question 16

De Clerambault Syndrome

Answer 16

Erotomania, or more specifically a female patient’s belief that a wealthier older man, whom she does not know, loves her.

Question 17

Ekbom Syndrome

Answer 17

1) Delusional parasitosis, the belief that the skin is infested with parasites, sometimes associated with cocaine use - European
2) Restless legs syndrome, the condition of annoying sensations in the extremities that disturbs sleep onset - American

Question 18

Fahr Disease

Answer 18

Idiopathic calcification of basal ganglia that causes dementia and abnormal extra movements, often comorbid with obsessive-compulsive and mood symptoms.

Question 19

Fregoli Delusion

Answer 19

Belief that strangers are actually persons well known to the patient, in disguise.

Question 20

Ganser Syndrome

Answer 20

The symptom of answering all questions approximately; e.g. “2+2=5”

Question 21

Gardner-Diamond Syndrome

Answer 21

Purpura associated with psychological stress; subcutaneous injection of patients’ own blood reproduces the rash in the (mostly female) sufferers.

Question 22

Gélineau Syndrome

Answer 22

Narcolepsy; a disorder with daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, sleep paralysis, hypnagogic hallucinations, and association with various human lymphocyte antigens.

Question 23

Gerstmann Syndrome

Answer 23

Finger agnosia, agraphia, right-left disorientation, and dyscalculia, associated with dominant parietal lobe lesions.

Question 24

Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker Disease

Answer 24

Transmissible prion disease that causes dementia and affects only individuals with particular autosomaldominant defects of chromosome.

Question 25

Geschwind Syndrome

Answer 25

Constellation of interictal behavior including hyposexuality, hyperreligiosity, hypergraphia, and “viscosity” (not observing appropriate social boundaries in conversation), all seen in some patients with chronic temporal lobe epilepsy.

Question 26

Gjessing Syndrome

Answer 26

“Periodic catatonia”; a disorganized state of withdrawal or agitation that fluctuates on and off.

Question 27

Hakim-Adams Syndrome

Answer 27

Normal pressure hydrocephalus; the accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles without a significant rise in intracranial pressure, which often causes dementia, gait apraxia, and incontinence; shunting reverses the dementia if it is identified in time.

Question 28

Heller Syndrome

Answer 28

Childhood Disintegrative Disorder; the loss of milestones in multiple domains after age

Question 29

Hoigne Syndrome

Answer 29

Acute psychosis due to the intravenous injection of penicillin.

Question 30

Hoover Sign

Answer 30

Unconsciously exerted downward pressure with a healthy leg when the paretic leg is challenged; its absence demonstrates a feigned deficit.

Question 31

Kahlbaum Syndrome

Answer 31

Catatonia; a syndrome of waxy posturing or purposeless agitation or speech, treated with benzodiazepines and ECT.

Question 32

Kanner Syndrome

Answer 32

Autism; a developmental disorder with abnormal communication, impaired social interaction, repetitive behavior, and symptoms before the age of 3 years.

Question 33

Klene-Levin Syndrome

Answer 33

Syndrome of hyperphagia, hypersexuality, and hypersomnia classically described in male adolescents.

Question 34

Klüver-Bucy Syndrome

Answer 34

Syndrome of temporal lobe damage involving hypersexuality and hyperorality.

Question 35

Korsakoff Syndrome

Answer 35

Chronic amnesia characterized by difficulty in learning new information (anterograde amnesia), manifesting as confabulation; caused by thiamin deficiency and wholly or partially reversible in some cases.

Question 36

Kozhevnikov Syndrome

Answer 36

Continuous partial epilepsy leading to progressive cognitive deterioration.

Question 37

Landau-Kleffner Syndrome

Answer 37

Continuous partial simple epilepsy selectively causing loss of language development in children.

Question 38

Langfeldt Psychosis

Answer 38

Psychosis without the declining course of schizophrenia.

Question 39

Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome

Answer 39

Congenital mental retardation caused by a chromosome 26 deletion, with defective purine metabolism and ferocious self-injury.

Question 40

Lhermittte Syndrome

Answer 40

Peduncular hallucinosis; bizarre hallucinations (classically, visions of Lilliputians) without other psychosis, due to a lesion in the midbrain.

Question 41

Marchiafava-Bignami Disease

Answer 41

Dementia due to callosal degeneration, associated with chronic alcohol (particularly wine) abuse.

Question 42

Marinescu Reflex

Answer 42

Palmomental reflex; the movement of the chin after stroking the palm, which, when unilateral, suggests frontal or diffuse brain damage.

Question 43

Martin-Bell Syndrome

Answer 43

Fragile X–linked mental retardation, a condition due to trinucleotide repeats on the X chromosome that is the most common genetic cause of mental retardation; particularly important in psychiatry because many patients suffer from autism and virtually all have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Question 44

Meige Syndrome

Answer 44

Dystonic blepharospasm; recurrent involuntary blinking caused by a hypodopaminergic state such as that induced by antipsychotics.

Question 45

Morvan Disease

Answer 45

Involuntary muscle fiber activity, hyperhidrosis, and sleeplessness that leads to death in weeks if not treated; possibly autoimmune.

Question 46

Myerson Sign

Answer 46

Glabellar tap reflex; a failure to extinguish blinking after 4 taps on the forehead that suggests frontal, diffuse, or extrapyramidal disease.

Question 47

Parkinson Disease/Syndrome

Answer 47

Disease is the idiopathic degeneration of the substantia nigra that causes resting tremor, bradykinesia and rigidity.

Syndrome is these symptoms due to some other cause such as medication.

Question 48

Pick Disease

Answer 48

Dementia with frontal and temporal atrophy, early personality change and Pick bodies found postmortem.

Question 49

Prader-Willi Syndrome

Answer 49

A congenital form of mental retardation distinctive for patients’ compulsive eating and self-mutilation; caused by a chromosome 15 deletion.

Question 50

Rasmussen Syndrome

Answer 50

Unilateral brain atrophy and continuous epilepsy that results in cognitive decline until the affected portion of the brain is removed.

Question 51

Rett Syndrome

Answer 51

Developmental disorder caused by an X-linked dominant mutation that is found mostly in girls and involves acquired microcephaly, reversal of cognitive and social development, ataxia, and “hand-wringing (stereotypic hand movements and manual dyspraxia).

Question 52

Sanfilippo Syndrome

Answer 52

Congenital mental retardation caused by a chromosome 12 deletion, distinctive for aggression and insomnia.

Question 53

Smith-Magenis Syndrome

Answer 53

Congenital mental retardation distinctive for severe self-injury and “self-hugging” behavior.

Question 54

Steele-Richardson-Olszewski Disease

Answer 54

Dementia with ataxia, loss of ability to look up or down, and parkinsonism.

Question 55

Strauss Syndrome

Answer 55

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; the condition of inattention and/or hyperactivity once known as “minimal brain damage syndrome.”

Question 56

Sydenham Chorea

Answer 56

Movement disorder that follows rheumatic fever; often preceded by obsessive-compulsive symptoms (first described by Osler) that have been characterized recently as “PANDAS” when they occur alone.

Question 57

Tourette Syndrome

Answer 57

Disorder with both motor and vocal tics (sometimes coprolalia), often comorbid with obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

Question 58

Von Economo Disease

Answer 58

Encephalitis lethargica, a syndrome that afflicted many victims of a viral epidemic in the early 20th century and distinctive for Parkinsonism, lethargy, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

Question 59

Wernicke Encephalopathy

Answer 59

Triad of delirium, ataxia, and abnormal eye movements associated with thiamin deficiency, particularly in alcohol abusers.

Question 60

Williams Syndrome

Answer 60

Congenital syndrome of mental retardation with a deletion on chromosome 7, distinctive for patients’ fluent verbal ability and “elfin” face.

Question 61

Wilson Disease

Answer 61

Congenital recessive condition of defective copper metabolism due to a defect in chromosome 13, characterized by hepatic symptoms and later psychiatric symptoms and choreoathetosis as various organ systems are overwhelmed by copper. It can be diagnosed (once the central nervous system is affected) by finding Kaiser-Fleischer rings in the cornea with a slit-lamp though these are not universally present. A more reliable diagnosis depends on low ceruloplasmin and elevated copped in urine and liver biopsies.

Question 62

Wolfram Syndrome

Answer 62

Rare autosomal recessive syndrome caused by a defect in chromosome 4, with diabetes, bilateral optic atrophy, and diverse psychiatric disorders. Heterozygotes for the Wolfram mutation are extremely common (occurring in 1% of the population), and those having them may be at high risk for psychiatric illness.