Another cause of reversible dementia: sleep deprivation due to prostatism

A case history is presented of a patient with treatable dementia of unusual pathogenesis. Fear of urinary incontinence associated with nocturia and urgency caused the patient to deprive himself of sleep, resulting in slowed mentation and apathy that was diagnosed as chronic organic brain syndrome for approximately one year. When his benign prostatic hypertrophy was surgically corrected, the patient allowed himself normal sleep, and the "chronic brain syndrome" cleared completely.