Eponyms Flashcards
Angelman syndrome
Congenital syndrome of mental retardation and epilepsy that is distinctive for puppetlike movements, compulsive laughter, and heritability.
Anton Syndrome
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.
Balint syndrome
Constellation of symptoms that include fixation of gaze, neglect of objects in visual surroundings, and misreaching, usually due to bilateral superior parietooccipital lesions.
Bell Mania
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.
Binswanger Disease
A particular type of multi-infarct dementia (a subtype of DSM-IV Vascular Dementia) in which infarcts selectively affect the white matter.
Briquet Syndrome
Somatization Disorder; the disorder of multiple somatic complaints across different organ systems as a manifestation of anxiety.
Brueghel Syndrome
Trigeminal dystonia that affects the mouth, sometimes provoked by antipsychotics.
Capgras Syndrome
The belief that strangers in disguise have replaced persons known to the patient.
Charcot-Willbrand Syndrome
“Global cessation of dreaming”; the loss of all or part of dreaming after brain injury.
Charles Bonnet Syndrome
Visual hallucinations in the context of reduced eyesight.
Clerambault-Kandinsky Syndrome
The syndrome that includes any paranoid psychosis in which thought insertions predominate, regardless of etiology.
[Cornelia] de Lange Syndrome
Congenital mental retardation distinctive for patients’ self-injury, hyperactivity, sleeplessness, and aggression.
Cotard Syndrome
Patient’s belief that he does not exist, that part of him is not there (e.g., his organs), or that he is dead.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
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.
Da Costa Syndrome
Panic Disorder; the condition of debilitating anxiety attacks accompanied by attempts to avoid such attacks.
De Clerambault Syndrome
Erotomania, or more specifically a female patient’s belief that a wealthier older man, whom she does not know, loves her.
Ekbom Syndrome
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
Fahr Disease
Idiopathic calcification of basal ganglia that causes dementia and abnormal extra movements, often comorbid with obsessive-compulsive and mood symptoms.
Fregoli Delusion
Belief that strangers are actually persons well known to the patient, in disguise.
Ganser Syndrome
The symptom of answering all questions approximately; e.g. “2+2=5”
Gardner-Diamond Syndrome
Purpura associated with psychological stress; subcutaneous injection of patients’ own blood reproduces the rash in the (mostly female) sufferers.
Gélineau Syndrome
Narcolepsy; a disorder with daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, sleep paralysis, hypnagogic hallucinations, and association with various human lymphocyte antigens.
Gerstmann Syndrome
Finger agnosia, agraphia, right-left disorientation, and dyscalculia, associated with dominant parietal lobe lesions.
Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker Disease
Transmissible prion disease that causes dementia and affects only individuals with particular autosomaldominant defects of chromosome.
Geschwind Syndrome
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.
Gjessing Syndrome
“Periodic catatonia”; a disorganized state of withdrawal or agitation that fluctuates on and off.
Hakim-Adams Syndrome
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.
Heller Syndrome
Childhood Disintegrative Disorder; the loss of milestones in multiple domains after age
Hoigne Syndrome
Acute psychosis due to the intravenous injection of penicillin.
Hoover Sign
Unconsciously exerted downward pressure with a healthy leg when the paretic leg is challenged; its absence demonstrates a feigned deficit.
Kahlbaum Syndrome
Catatonia; a syndrome of waxy posturing or purposeless agitation or speech, treated with benzodiazepines and ECT.
Kanner Syndrome
Autism; a developmental disorder with abnormal communication, impaired social interaction, repetitive behavior, and symptoms before the age of 3 years.
Klene-Levin Syndrome
Syndrome of hyperphagia, hypersexuality, and hypersomnia classically described in male adolescents.
Klüver-Bucy Syndrome
Syndrome of temporal lobe damage involving hypersexuality and hyperorality.
Korsakoff Syndrome
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.
Kozhevnikov Syndrome
Continuous partial epilepsy leading to progressive cognitive deterioration.
Landau-Kleffner Syndrome
Continuous partial simple epilepsy selectively causing loss of language development in children.
Langfeldt Psychosis
Psychosis without the declining course of schizophrenia.
Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome
Congenital mental retardation caused by a chromosome 26 deletion, with defective purine metabolism and ferocious self-injury.
Lhermittte Syndrome
Peduncular hallucinosis; bizarre hallucinations (classically, visions of Lilliputians) without other psychosis, due to a lesion in the midbrain.
Marchiafava-Bignami Disease
Dementia due to callosal degeneration, associated with chronic alcohol (particularly wine) abuse.
Marinescu Reflex
Palmomental reflex; the movement of the chin after stroking the palm, which, when unilateral, suggests frontal or diffuse brain damage.
Martin-Bell Syndrome
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.
Meige Syndrome
Dystonic blepharospasm; recurrent involuntary blinking caused by a hypodopaminergic state such as that induced by antipsychotics.
Morvan Disease
Involuntary muscle fiber activity, hyperhidrosis, and sleeplessness that leads to death in weeks if not treated; possibly autoimmune.
Myerson Sign
Glabellar tap reflex; a failure to extinguish blinking after 4 taps on the forehead that suggests frontal, diffuse, or extrapyramidal disease.
Parkinson Disease/Syndrome
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.
Pick Disease
Dementia with frontal and temporal atrophy, early personality change and Pick bodies found postmortem.
Prader-Willi Syndrome
A congenital form of mental retardation distinctive for patients’ compulsive eating and self-mutilation; caused by a chromosome 15 deletion.
Rasmussen Syndrome
Unilateral brain atrophy and continuous epilepsy that results in cognitive decline until the affected portion of the brain is removed.
Rett Syndrome
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).
Sanfilippo Syndrome
Congenital mental retardation caused by a chromosome 12 deletion, distinctive for aggression and insomnia.
Smith-Magenis Syndrome
Congenital mental retardation distinctive for severe self-injury and “self-hugging” behavior.
Steele-Richardson-Olszewski Disease
Dementia with ataxia, loss of ability to look up or down, and parkinsonism.
Strauss Syndrome
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; the condition of inattention and/or hyperactivity once known as “minimal brain damage syndrome.”
Sydenham Chorea
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.
Tourette Syndrome
Disorder with both motor and vocal tics (sometimes coprolalia), often comorbid with obsessive-compulsive symptoms.
Von Economo Disease
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.
Wernicke Encephalopathy
Triad of delirium, ataxia, and abnormal eye movements associated with thiamin deficiency, particularly in alcohol abusers.
Williams Syndrome
Congenital syndrome of mental retardation with a deletion on chromosome 7, distinctive for patients’ fluent verbal ability and “elfin” face.
Wilson Disease
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.
Wolfram Syndrome
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.
