# Schizencephaly Associated With Bipolar Affective Disorder

## TL;DR

A rare case connects schizencephaly, a brain abnormality, with bipolar disorder and psychosis in a young man.

## Contribution

This paper reports a rare case linking schizencephaly with bipolar disorder and psychosis.

## Key findings

- A 22-year-old male with schizencephaly developed first episode psychosis and manic symptoms.
- Only four case studies have previously explored the connection between schizencephaly and bipolar disorder.
- The patient had a history of childhood seizures and was diagnosed with closed-lip schizencephaly.

## Abstract

Schizencephaly is a rare congenital anomaly characterized by the formation of abnormal clefts in the brain. Despite the association of psychotic symptoms with various brain abnormalities or insults, their occurrence in individuals with schizencephaly is relatively infrequent. The association of bipolar disorder, with or without psychosis, with schizencephaly is rarer. A systematic search on PubMed using "Schizencephaly AND Bipolar Disorder" yielded only four case studies specifically addressing the connection between these two conditions. Here, we present a case of a 22-year-old male patient with a history of childhood seizures who developed first episode psychosis along with manic symptoms and was found to have closed-lip schizencephaly.