Heroin-induced leucoencephalopathy misdiagnosed as psychiatric illness

We present a patient with a background of psychiatric illness who was admitted to hospital with neurological symptoms and signs. Although the organic cause of the neurological disorder was extremely uncommon and hence not readily diagnosed, the signs clearly did not accord with the preexisting psychiatric diagnoses. Nevertheless, several clinicians attributed the cause of the disorder to mental illness, or drug side-effects. It is possible that patients suffering from mental illness may be assessed differently, perhaps due to prejudgement by clinicians.