Fact or Factitious?

Abstract

Psychiatric symptoms may mask a physical problem. Fatigue, stress, disorientation, and lack of concentration lead to an initial diagnosis of depression for this patient, when, in actuality, her underlying condition was something quite different. Our patient, a 36-year-old nurse, was hospitalized in a psychiatric clinic after attempting to commit suicide using regular and isophane insulin combined with benzodiazepines. She was found in a hypoglycemic coma with a capillary glucose level of<3 mmol/L.