Treatment of cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome with aripiprazole

This report describes a patient who developed agitation, disorientation, visual hallucinations, inappropriate verbal outbursts, and impaired memory following resection of a choroid plexus papilloma. No medical, neurologic, or metabolic disorders unrelated to the surgery were identified. Five weeks following surgery, treatment with aripiprazole, a partial dopamine agonist, was started to address the delirious state. Improvements in agitation, orientation, memory, and executive functions, as well as a decrease in emotional lability, began within twenty-four hours and continued over the remainder of the inpatient hospitalization. Five months after initial resection, aripiprazole was discontinued without worsening of cognitive or emotional functions. Persistent difficulties with working memory, planning, judgment, and visuospatial skills were noted on neuropsychological examination six months following tumor removal. This case illustrated the therapeutic benefit of aripiprazole for treatment of mental status changes associated with resection of a posterior fossa tumor.