Acute Encephalopathy Due to Water Intoxication

Abstract

IT is generally considered that healthy persons can drink large quantities of water without ill-effect.1 This communication reports 2 cases of acute delirium and convulsions that followed the voluntary ingestion of massive volumes of water.Water intoxication usually occurs in patients who have a predisposing illness that compromises the ability of the kidneys to handle a large water load. Symptoms of delirium and convulsions induced in a healthy person by the voluntary ingestion of excess water have been recorded in the literature only once. Barahal2 reported the case of a female patient with schizophrenia who drank "gallons of water" in . . .