Prevalence and Improvement of Caine-Positive Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome in Psychiatric Inpatient Admissions

Shihong Lin, Idris E. Leppla, Haijuan Yan, Julia M. Probert, Privia A. Randhawa, Jeannie Marie S. Leoutsakos, John C. Probasco, Karin J. Neufeld

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome (WKS) resulting from thiamine deficiency is classically defined as including encephalopathy, ataxia, and ophthalmoplegia. Only 16% of autopsy-confirmed patients with WKS exhibit all three signs. Caine-positive WKS criteria include two or more of the following: nutritional deficiency, delirium or mild memory impairment, cerebellar dysfunction/ataxia, and oculomotor abnormalities. Objective: We describe Caine-positive WKS prevalence among psychiatric inpatients and compare pretreatment-versus-posttreatment neurocognitive improvement to an unaffected group. Methods: This 6-month quality-improvement evaluation included two-stage screening for Caine-positive WKS, administering high-dose intravenous thiamine (day 1: 1200 mg; days 2–4: 200 mg) with reexamination on day 5. We used descriptive statistics and fitted random effects models to examine rate-of-change differences in pre-/posttreatment Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), delayed 5-item recall, and gait/coordination scores between treated Caine-positive patients with WKS and untreated Caine-negative patients. Results: Of 262 patients, 32 (12%) had Caine-positive WKS; 17 (53%) used alcohol currently. Treated Caine-positive WKS (n = 26) versus Caine-negative comparison (n = 34) before and after treatment observed a mean change (standard deviation) in the MoCA score of 3.6 (2.5) versus 1.8 (2.5) (P < 0.01); 5-item recall: 1.8 (1.4) versus 0.5 (1.4) (P < 0.001); gait/coordination scores: −0.6 (1.2) versus −0.1 (0.6) (P < 0.001). Oculomotor abnormalities were infrequent (n = 4 in Caine-positive WKS, n = 2 in Caine-negative comparison groups). Conclusions: Caine-positive WKS prevalence among psychiatric inpatients was 12%; only half used alcohol. Patients treated with high-dose thiamine demonstrated clinically significant neurocognitive improvement.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)31-38
Number of pages8
JournalPsychosomatics
Volume61
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2020

Keywords

  • Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome
  • alcohol-related brain diseases
  • memory
  • nutritional diseases

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Applied Psychology

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