Wernicke Encephalopathy in schizophrenia: a systematic review

Figures & data

Figure 1. Flow chart of case study inclusion. Illustration of the number of articles identified in literature search and reasons for exclusion. Eleven studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Table 1. Demographic and clinical characteristics.

Author	Gender	Age	Lost weight/time	Aetiology	Pre-existent comorbidity	Ataxia	Eye-movement disorder	Mental status change	MRI/CT/EEG/ Autopsy
MacDonell and Wrenn (1991)	M	41		N.A.	Alcoholism and schizophrenia	+	+	+	CT −
Spittle and Parker (1993)	M	61		Delusion – Dying from an ovarian tumour	Schizophrenia with catatonia	+	+, opthalmoplegia	+, no verbal communication	N.A.
Doraiswamy et al. (1994)	F	37	31.8 kg	Delusion – Foods are dangerous	Delusions	+	+, nystagmus and opthalmoplegia	+, Amnesia, apraxia	MRI +
Casanova (1996)	F	36	No weight loss	Delusions – police as perpetrator	Paranoid schizophrenia	−	−	+, lack of insight	Autopsy +
Newman et al. (1998)	M	46	N.A.	Delusion – Food poisoning	Schizoaffective disorder	+	+, rotary nystagmus	+ memory problems, agitation, dysartria	N.A.
Tsai et al. (2004)	M	41	17 kg/1.5 years	Voices asked to stop eating	Schizophrenia	+	+, horizontal nystagmus	+, dysartria, memory loss	MRI +
Kaineg and Hudgins (2005)	F	21	13 kg / 4 months	Vomiting	Schizoaffective disorder	+	+, nystagmus	+, disorientation, slurred speech	MRI +
Harrison et al. (2006)	M	51	18.1 kg/3 months	Stopped eating in paranoia	Paranoid schizophrenia, Seizures	+	+, Opthalmoplegia and nystagmus	+, disorientation, agitation	MRI +
Salawu and Kwajaffa (2007)	M	37	60kg/5 months	Delusion – Dying from a tumour	Paranoid schizophrenia	+	+, opthalmoplegia	+, disoriented, agitated	N.A.
Harrington et al. (2007)	M	Middle aged		Anorexia	Alcoholism and schizophrenia	−	−	+, memory and alertness	MRI +
Park et al. (2009)	F	42	5kg	Vomiting	Schizophrenia, Oesophagus carcinoma, metastasis	+	+, nystagmus	+, memory loss	MRI +
McCormick et al. (2011)	M	Mid30s	11.3 kg/Three months	Soda pop diet, Delusion – food poisoning	Paranoid schizophrenia	+	−	+ Confusion, lack of insight, memory problems	MRI +
Felix et al. (2012)	F	45	N.A.	God delusion	Schizophrenia	+	+, upbeat nystagmus	+ disorientation, confusion	MRI +
Langlois et al. (2014)	M	36	22.7 kg	Slimming cure	Paranoid schizophrenia	+	+, nystagmus	+, amnesia, agnosia	MRI +
Hargrave et al. (2015)	M	35	13.6 kg/ year	Delusional sensation of food stuck in his throat	Pneumonitis Depression Delusions	+	+, nystagmus	+, memory, confused, disoriented	MRI +

+: symptom is present; −: symptom is absent; BMI: body mass index in kg/m²; CT: computed tomography; F: female; M: male; MRI: magnetic resonance imaging; N.A.: not available.

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