Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2002 Jun 22;324(7352):1479-82.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.324.7352.1479.

First hundred cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: retrospective case note review of early psychiatric and neurological features

Michael D Spencer  1 , Richard S G Knight, Robert G Will
Affiliations
Review

First hundred cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: retrospective case note review of early psychiatric and neurological features

Michael D Spencer et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To describe the early psychiatric and neurological features of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: National surveillance system for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United Kingdom.

Participants: The first 100 cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease identified in the United Kingdom.

Main outcome measures: The timing and nature of early psychiatric and neurological symptoms in variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Results: The early stages of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are dominated by psychiatric symptoms, but neurological symptoms precede psychiatric symptoms in 15% of cases and are present in combination with psychiatric symptoms in 22% of cases from the onset of disease. Common early psychiatric features include dysphoria, withdrawal, anxiety, insomnia, and loss of interest. No common early neurological features exist, but a significant proportion of patients do exhibit neurological symptoms within 4 months of clinical onset, including poor memory, pain, sensory symptoms, unsteadiness of gait, and dysarthria.

Conclusions: Although the diagnosis of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease may be impossible in the early stages of the illness, particular combinations of psychiatric and neurological features may allow early diagnosis in an appreciable proportion of patients.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cumulative onset of psychiatric and neurological features
Figure 2
Figure 2
Times of onset of psychiatric features (in months)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Times of onset of neurological features (in months)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Will RG, Ironside JW, Zeidler M, Cousens SN, Estibeiro K, Alperovitch A, et al. A new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the UK. Lancet. 1996;347:921–925. - PubMed
    1. Zeidler M, Johnstone EC, Bamber RW, Dickens CM, Fisher CJ, Francis AF, et al. New variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: psychiatric features. Lancet. 1997;350:908–910. - PubMed
    1. Allroggen H, Dennis G, Abbottt RJ, Pye IF. New-variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: three case reports from Leicestershire. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2000;68:375–378. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dervaux A, Vicart S, Lopes F, Le Borgne M-H. Psychiatric features of vCJD similar in France and UK. Br J Psychiatry. 2001;178:276. - PubMed
    1. Will RG, Stewart G, Zeidler M, Macleod MA, Knight RSG. Psychiatric features of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Psychiatric Bull. 1999;23:264–267.

Publication types