Polydipsia and polyuria without identifiable underlying medical causes are found in 16-17% of psychiatric inpatients, especially chronic schizophrenia. The authors viewed the problems of polydipsia and hyponatremia in chronic schizophrenia and
presented
a comprehensive approach to the evaluation and the treatment, through presented a 29 years old chronic schizophrenia showing water intoxication symptoms due to polydipsia. We tried various methods to prevent water intoxication. These methods were
as
follows. At first the behavior therapy which mainly enforced physical restraint, secondly the regulation of antipsychotics dosage, thirdly Demeclocycline, antidiuretic hormone antagonist, which recently has been reported to have some effect for
treatment of polydipsia-hyponatremia were attempted. However the above treatments didn't show a clear improvement of polydipsia-hyponatremia. So the treatment of alkali-ionic solution supply which have not been reported on the literature was
attempted
finally, the results were dramatic in diminishing frequency of water intoxicating episodes.
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