Internistic onset of a psychiatric disease

Psychogenic polydipsia is the act of compulsive water drinking. It is a well-recognized phenomenon that occurs in patients with psychiatric diseases, which, when severe enough, can lead to hyponatremia and characterize Self-Induced Water Intoxication (SIWI). SIWI patients present with various neurological findings such as brain edema, coma, convulsion and death due to secondary severe hyponatremia. Non-neurological symptoms, such as rhabdomyolysis, have been rarely described. In this case we will present a patient who presented with severe hyponatremia secondary to psychogenic polydipsia and rhabdomyolysis.
Bollettino della Società Medico Chirurgica di Pavia, Vol 124, N° 1 (2011)