Case 5

He was a 33 year old young man. He could not tolerate the slightest criticism. He was very quick-tempered. Nervousness was one of his main complaints. In addition, he believed that everyone is hostile towards him, and he heard voices from a supernatural world.

He had tried a variety of treatments, none of which yielded a result.

When I questioned the family carefully, they mentioned that 6 years ago he suffered sensory loss in the right half of his body which lasted several days. Immediately afterwards he experienced speech difficulties, and a deterioration in his ability to learn or concentrate. In the subsequent months delusions and hallucinations came into the picture. When he came to me he had difficulty in communicating. It seemed that he was not listening. He was giving unrelated answers to questions. His reasoning was affected.

In the EEG the single side alpha rhythm (7-13 Hertz brain wave) was absent. This finding was particularly marked on the right temporal side and front lobe. The MR investigation revealed that there had been an infarct in the right thalamic core. There was no blood flow in that core of the brain.

The actual problem of this patient who at first glance could easily be diagnosed as “schizophrenic”, was something entirely different… that was the reason why he was not responding to schizophrenia medication…