Klüver-Bucy Syndrome
Introduction[edit | edit source]
Klüver-Bucy Syndrome (KBS) is a dysfunction arising from lesions of bilateral medial temporal lobes, including nucleus of the amygdala1. Though, it is a neurologic dysfunction. It may also be classified under “psychiatry”. It was first recorded among individuals who had undergone temporal lobectomy in 1955.
The investigation leading to the discovery was carried out by Heinrich Klüver and Paul Bucy, a neurosurgeon on a number of rhesus monkeys in the 1930s.2
Clinical Presentation[edit | edit source]
Clinical presentations are not agreed upon and vary in literature according to source. Generally, it includes the following;345
- Amnesia; this is essentially inability to recall past experiences (memories) which may be anterograde – inability to recall events from the period of the amnesic episode, or retrograde – loss of memory from the period before the amnesic episode.
- Tameness; also termed “placidity” or “docility”, it is characterized by showing reduced ‘flight or fight’ response.
- Hyperphagia and dietary changes; this can present as pica (eating inappropriate objects) and/or overeating
- Hyperorality; “oral tendency or compulsion to examine objects by mouth”
- Hypersexuality; manifested as a heightened sex drive and propensity to seek sexual stimulation from unusual and inappropriate objects.
- Visual agnosia; inability to identify familial items and people.
Some presentations which are found to be inconsistent include;
- Hypermetamorphorsis; “an irresistible impulse to notice and react to everything in sight”
- Diminished or lack of emotional response
Diagnostic Procedures[edit | edit source]
It is uncommon for patients to manifest all symptoms, three or more of which is essential for diagnosis. The commonest symptoms in humans include tameness, hyperorality and dietary changes.
Predisposing Conditions[edit | edit source]
Conditions which predisposes an individual to the diagnosis of KBS include;
- Temporal lobectomy
- Meningoencephalitis
- Acute herpes simplex encephalitis
- Stroke
- Pick disease
- Alzhemier’s disease
- Ischemia
- Anoxia
- Progressive subcortical gliosis
- Rett syndrome
- Porphyria
- Carbon monoxide poisoning, among others
Management / Interventions
[edit | edit source]
Studies have shown pharmacotherapy as an effective way of combating KBS with literature on physiotherapy intervention and management very sparse. Pharmacological interventions have been known to include treatment with; 7
- Carbamezine
- Valproate
- Topiramate
- Quetiapine,
- Propranolol
- Benztropine
- Haloperidol
- Trazodone
- Sertraline
- Olanzapine
- Lorazepam
- Valproic acid
- Thiothixene
- Bromocriptine
