Disulfiram, tetraethylthiuram disulfide, has been used in the clinical treatment of alcoholism since 1943. Aside from the manifestations of a disulfiram-alcohol reaction, disulfiram causes direct toxic side effects including psychiatric,
cardiovascular,
hematologic and neurologic disorders. The most frequent neurologic side effects are drowsiness, apathy, headache, decreased sexual potency, neuropathy, and optic neuritis. We describe a 26-year-old man who insidiously developed a distal symmetric
sensorimotor polhyneuropathy after seven years of disulfiram ingestion confirmed by nerve biopsy. He showed nearly complete resolution after the disulfiram was stopped.
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