[An acute psychotic episode following adrenalectomy in cushing's syndrome]

A marked cortisone psychosis with initial depressive symptoms developed following left adrenalectomy in a 41 year-old female patient suffering from Cushing's syndrome due to bilateral adrenal hyperplasia. On deterioration of the clinical picture with the development of delusional ideas, verbal hallucinosis with imperative voices was observed. The administration of neuroleptic drugs favourably influenced the psychosis, which disappeared with a final depressive stage, thereby enabling removal of the second hyperplastic adrenal gland. The physical signs showed a good remission, except for the severe myopathy and osteoporosis; the pathologically-altered serum potassium level and the erythrocyte potassium content returned to normal.