AN UNUSUAL CASE OF PICA

Pica is the persistent, culturally and developmentally inappropriate i ngestion of non nutritive substances (DSM-IV). AB is a 75-year-old lad y with a 40-year history of schizophrenia and a 20-year history of pic a who, at emergency laparotomy, had pound 175.32 of loose change in he r stomach. Although pica has been reported to coexist with schizophren ia, she had had no positive symptoms of schizophrenia for at least 20 years. She has CT evidence of frontotempotal atrophy most marked on th e left in the temporal lobe and on the right in the frontal lobe. Pica has been found to be related to cognitive deficits and hyperoral beha viour to temporal lesions. Neuropsychological testing reveals deficits closely related to these changes. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.