The mimicking of mania in "benign" herpes simplex encephalitis.

This paper reports on a relative rarity, the case of a 41-year-old male who, after receiving an original admission diagnosis of clear-cut acute mania, actually turned out to be suffering from herpes simplex encephalitis. Interestingly enough, his illness was unusually "benign" in the sense that at no time during massive cycling bipolar mood disturbances did any clinically apparent neurological signs and symptoms or other serious somatic complications or any psychopathology pointing to an acute organic brain syndrome appear. Karl Bonhoeffer's often forgotten but still relevant clinical insights on acute organic psychoses are then discussed in the light of recent research attempting to link manic states and infectious illness.