[Neuropsychiatric disorders in insulinoma].

The case of a young female presenting severe mental problems and episodic neurological symptoms is described. Obsessive-compulsive disorder was diagnosed upon psychiatric treatment for eight months. No neurological condition was found. Hypoglycaemia was observed during an episode of long-lasting somnolescence and the patient referred for endocrinological examination. Reactive hypoglycaemia was ruled out in an oral glucose tolerance test. A test of prolonged starvation revealed hypoglycaemia associated with neuropsychiatric symptoms. Glucose abolished this condition, suggesting an insulinoma as the basis of the spontaneous hypoglycaemia. Subsequently, two insulinomas were resected from the tail of the pancreas. The patient has recovered completely after her surgery, with no signs of mental or neurological disease and blood glucose within normal limits. As insulinoma is often associated to the MEN1-syndrome, the patient and her relatives are now being investigated for this condition.