Neurological Disorders

Fahr’s Disease: A Rare Neurological Disease Frequently Misdiagnosed as Acute Psychosis, or Mood Disorder.

Abstract

Suneel Kumar, Khalid Sher, Saeed Ahmed, Savita Naik, Shahana Ayub, Fatima B Motiwala and Rizwan Ahmed

Fahr’s disease is a rare, degenerative neurological disorder characterized by idiopathic symmetrical and bilateral intracranial calcification. We present a case of 32 years old man with Fahr’s disease who presented with episodes of inappropriate excessive laughing, generalized tonic clonic seizures associated with loss of consciousness, frothing from mouth, urine incontinence and difficulty in walking due to neurological deficit. MRI of brain demonstrated calcification of bilateral basal ganglia, thalami and left dentate nucleus of left cerebellum. The clinical presentation similar to our patient is frequently misdiagnosed due to identical manifestation to other neurological and psychiatric disorders especially in young to middle aged individuals. Fahr’s disease may often misdiagnosed as a patient of acute psychosis or epileptic seizures.