Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (2009) 15: 181-191. doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.107.005090
© 2009 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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Hyperthermia syndromes in psychiatry

Niraj Ahuja and Andrew J. Cole

Niraj Ahuja is a consultant psychiatrist with Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Trust and an honorary clinical lecturer in psychiatry at Newcastle University. Dr Ahuja is a member of the Newcastle and North Tyneside Local Research Ethics Committee II. Andrew J. Cole is a consultant psychiatrist with Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Trust and an honorary clinical lecturer in psychiatry at Newcastle University. Dr Cole is also Assistant Medical Director for North Tyneside.

Correspondence: Correspondence Dr Niraj Ahuja, Wallsend Community Mental Health Team, Sir G.B. Hunter Memorial Hospital, The Green, Wallsend NE28 7PD. Email: niraj.ahuja{at}ncl.ac.uk

Presence of fever in psychiatric patients may signify a number of potentially fatal conditions. Several of these are related to treatments (e.g. neuroleptic malignant syndrome with antipsychotics, serotonin syndrome with serotonergic antidepressants, and malignant hyperpyrexia with anaesthesia used for administration of electroconvulsive therapy) or exacerbated by them (e.g. malignant catatonia with antipsychotics). New classes of drug treatment may be changing the epidemiology of these disorders. We suggest that an initial diagnosis of hyperthermia syndrome is clinically useful as there are some important commonalities in treatment. We outline a systematic approach to identify a particular subtype of hyperthermia syndrome and the indications for more specific treatments where available.