Atropa Belladonna Poisoning in a Child with Acute Psychiatric Findings

• Main Authors: Dilek Cebeci, Esra Gürkaş, Hülya Maraş Genç, Nesrin Ceylan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Galenos Yayinevi 2020-04-01
• Series: Journal of Pediatric Emergency and Intensive Care Medicine
• Subjects: poisoning; atropa belladonna; atropine
• Online Access: http://www.caybdergi.com/archives/archive-detail/article-preview/atropa-belladonna-poisoning-in-a-child-with-acute-/35961

Atropa belladonna plant, also known as “beautiful woman herb” in our country, contains tropane alkaloids such as atropine, scopalamine and hyoshiamine in the fruits and leaves. When this plant is consumed it causes anticholinergic toxic syndrome. In this article, we report a case of atropa belladonna poisoning in a child who was brought to the pediatric neurology clinic with acute psychiatric findings. An 8.5-year-old girl was brought to the pediatric neurology clinic with the complaint of meaningless speech for 12 hours. It was learned that when she went to sleep in the night, she started turning in the bed, refused to sleep telling that she had a bad dream. She stated that she was feeling as if the wardrobes in the room were tiping over her. Then, she started soliloquize and pacing and had visual hallucination. During the examination, she was trying to jump over saying that there were shapes on the floor. The pupils were obviously dilated and light reflexes were taken. Initially, intoxication was considered, but the mother stated that she did not take any medicines, substances or different food. When the mother was questioned in detail, we learned that the patient ate spinach at dinner. The mother said that there was different weed, which were bitter in taste, among spinach leaves and she removed them. When the raw spinach left in the house was found, leaves of the atropa belladonna plant were found. Activated coal was given to the patient and physostigmine treatment was started. After the patient's symptoms improved at the end of 24 hours that she was asymptomatic, she was discharged. Intoxication should be considered in patients with acute psychiatric findings. It is very important to take detailed anamnesis in cases of intoxication. In addition to drug and substance intake, consumption of plants should also be questioned.