An Interesting Case of Barbiturate Automatism and Review of Literature
A 48 year old man with a diagnosis of HIV infection since 1993, on highly active anti-retro viral therapy (HAART) with stable CD4 count and undetectable viral load for years and seizure disorder presented with recurrent drowsiness. His seizures were well controlled on phenobarbitone for years. Repea...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2013-01-01
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| Series: | Case Reports in Neurological Medicine |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/713065 |
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| author | Sankalp Gokhale Ciro Ramos-Estebanez |
| author_facet | Sankalp Gokhale Ciro Ramos-Estebanez |
| author_sort | Sankalp Gokhale |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A 48 year old man with a diagnosis of HIV infection since 1993, on highly active anti-retro viral therapy (HAART) with stable CD4 count and undetectable viral load for years and seizure disorder presented with recurrent drowsiness. His seizures were well controlled on phenobarbitone for years. Repeated laboratory evaluation demonstrated toxic levels of phenobarbitone in his blood. A thorough clinical, psychiatric, laboratory and imaging evaluation did not reveal any obvious etiology for the recurrent barbiturate intoxication in this man. Our findings suggest the possible diagnosis of barbiturate drug automatism in this patient. Though drug automatism is a controversial entity, it merits continued attention. There are recent reports of similar phenomenon with newer sedative agents such as Zolpidem. It is important to be aware of this phenomenon as a possible explanation for recurrent intoxication with barbiturates without a clear etiology for drug overdose. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-be81210f6e4b47b0995f99d6cc97f259 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2090-6668 2090-6676 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2013-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Case Reports in Neurological Medicine |
| spelling | doaj-art-be81210f6e4b47b0995f99d6cc97f2592025-08-20T03:23:01ZengWileyCase Reports in Neurological Medicine2090-66682090-66762013-01-01201310.1155/2013/713065713065An Interesting Case of Barbiturate Automatism and Review of LiteratureSankalp Gokhale0Ciro Ramos-Estebanez1Department of Neurology, Duke University Hospital, Durham, NC 27710, USADepartment of Neurology, Neurocritical Care Division, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106, USAA 48 year old man with a diagnosis of HIV infection since 1993, on highly active anti-retro viral therapy (HAART) with stable CD4 count and undetectable viral load for years and seizure disorder presented with recurrent drowsiness. His seizures were well controlled on phenobarbitone for years. Repeated laboratory evaluation demonstrated toxic levels of phenobarbitone in his blood. A thorough clinical, psychiatric, laboratory and imaging evaluation did not reveal any obvious etiology for the recurrent barbiturate intoxication in this man. Our findings suggest the possible diagnosis of barbiturate drug automatism in this patient. Though drug automatism is a controversial entity, it merits continued attention. There are recent reports of similar phenomenon with newer sedative agents such as Zolpidem. It is important to be aware of this phenomenon as a possible explanation for recurrent intoxication with barbiturates without a clear etiology for drug overdose.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/713065 |
| spellingShingle | Sankalp Gokhale Ciro Ramos-Estebanez An Interesting Case of Barbiturate Automatism and Review of Literature Case Reports in Neurological Medicine |
| title | An Interesting Case of Barbiturate Automatism and Review of Literature |
| title_full | An Interesting Case of Barbiturate Automatism and Review of Literature |
| title_fullStr | An Interesting Case of Barbiturate Automatism and Review of Literature |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Interesting Case of Barbiturate Automatism and Review of Literature |
| title_short | An Interesting Case of Barbiturate Automatism and Review of Literature |
| title_sort | interesting case of barbiturate automatism and review of literature |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/713065 |
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