Idiopathic basal ganglia calcification and organic mood disorder

Idiopathic basal ganglia calcification is a syndrome consisting of bilateral basal ganglia calcifications, neuropsychiatric abnormalities, disturbances of movement, and normal calcium and phosphorus metabolism. The best described neuropsychiatric alterations are dementia and an organic psychosis. Organic mood disorder has been reported less often, and mania secondary to idiopathic basal ganglia calcification has not been noted previously. The authors describe five patients with idiopathic basal ganglia calcification and organic mood changes, including one patient with secondary mania. Symptoms of idiopathic basal ganglia calcification resemble those of other disorders affecting subcortical structures and support an association between mood, affect, cognition, and the extrapyramidal nuclear system. Treatment may ameliorate the mood disorder.