A report of 25 cases of neurosyphilis seen in University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur since 1970. Classical form of the disease still constitute the majority of the patients with often long delay before diagnosis.
Neurosyphilis may presents with a range of psychiatric symptoms. This report illustrates a case of neurosyphilis in a man who presented with psychosis and cognitive dysfunction. Clinical findings and investigations done in the present case showed positive results for syphilis. Reduction of symptoms was noted after treatment with antibiotic. This case further highlights the importance of having high index of suspicion for neurosyphilis in patients presenting with psychiatric symptoms.
Neurosyphilis has been known to present with wide array of neuropsychiatric
signs and symptoms. However little is known of the severity of its
manifestations especially in our Malaysia setting. We are reporting a case of
a middle-aged ex-military Malay man who contracted neurosyphilis during
active service and since then had severe neuropsychiatric symptoms which
caused deterioration in his activities of daily living skills which warrants
constant supervision. We discuss the various presentations of neurosyphilis
and its sequelae despite completion of antibiotics treatment.