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What Causes Significant Weight Loss Along With Headaches And Pain In Ear?
Question: I have a brother that has gone through some serious delusional days that came on over a couple of days. people spying on him and stories of his past. this lasted for about 2 weeks. with this he had headaches and pain behind his ear. He them felt sick and went from 180lb to 160lb. this weight loss happened over a 10 day period. He refuses to get help because he doesn't believe there is anything wrong with him. His daughter is in grad school and has convinced him that she is going to do a paper on his past medical history in order to get into a doctors office. My questions is what test should we do for him. He is hypoglycemic, has had lyme disease, his spline has been removed, has never done drugs, or smoked, and has been working construction all his life. We don't know if he has any health insurance so we are telling him that these test are being paid for by a XXXXXXX we can't tell the doctor about this or they will have to tell him or they just won't do it. I don't want him to get mad at his daughter for this rouge. we want to make sure everything is ok medically before we do the next step. we want to make sure his brain is ok and doesn't have any diseases or infections.
Brief Answer:
He should throughly investigated to rule out organic cause of his symptoms
Detailed Answer:
Hello thanks for asking from HCM for your health related queries
I can understand your concern regarding your brother. He has developed acute onset delusions like people are spying on him and has started on stories of past. He also has lost significant weight along with headaches and pain in ear.
In most of cases if we consider onset of delusions or psychotic symptoms then they usually develop over a time and acute onset is not very common in psychotic disorders except acute transient psychotic disorder. Psychiatric disorders are usually diagnosed by taking proper history and by excluding all organic or medical causes.
He has developed acute onset psychotic symptoms, also lost significant weight and has headache, so first thing that should be done is to throughly investigate him to rule out any organic cause. He should underwent following investigations as per my opinion-
- Complete blood workup to find out any alteration in counts and any recent reduction of haemoglobin.
- Serum electrolytes especially Sodium, Potassium, Calcium to rule out any electrolyte abnormalities as cause of his symptoms.
- His complete blood sugar testing to find out any altered glucose levels.
- Brain imagine MRI preferable to rule out any mass lesion in brain. Acute onset in symptoms may occur due to mass lesion in brain. He is also complaining of headache and significant weight loss which also warrant proper imagining of brain.
If these investigations come normal then try to persuade him to consult a psychiatrist for his treatment and symptoms diagnosis.
Thanks, Hope this helps you. Please don't hesitate to ask again if you have more doubts.
He should throughly investigated to rule out organic cause of his symptoms
Detailed Answer:
Hello thanks for asking from HCM for your health related queries
I can understand your concern regarding your brother. He has developed acute onset delusions like people are spying on him and has started on stories of past. He also has lost significant weight along with headaches and pain in ear.
In most of cases if we consider onset of delusions or psychotic symptoms then they usually develop over a time and acute onset is not very common in psychotic disorders except acute transient psychotic disorder. Psychiatric disorders are usually diagnosed by taking proper history and by excluding all organic or medical causes.
He has developed acute onset psychotic symptoms, also lost significant weight and has headache, so first thing that should be done is to throughly investigate him to rule out any organic cause. He should underwent following investigations as per my opinion-
- Complete blood workup to find out any alteration in counts and any recent reduction of haemoglobin.
- Serum electrolytes especially Sodium, Potassium, Calcium to rule out any electrolyte abnormalities as cause of his symptoms.
- His complete blood sugar testing to find out any altered glucose levels.
- Brain imagine MRI preferable to rule out any mass lesion in brain. Acute onset in symptoms may occur due to mass lesion in brain. He is also complaining of headache and significant weight loss which also warrant proper imagining of brain.
If these investigations come normal then try to persuade him to consult a psychiatrist for his treatment and symptoms diagnosis.
Thanks, Hope this helps you. Please don't hesitate to ask again if you have more doubts.
Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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