A Case of Ankylosing Spinal Hyperostosis with Dysphagia Aggravated Because of Deterioration of Depressive Symptoms

It has been reported that 9%-42% psychiatric patients suffer from complications such as dysphagia and eating disorders [1], which can result in serious problems such as aspiration pneumonitis and suffocation [2-4]. Psychogenic eating disorders result from specific psychiatric disorders, whereas drug-induced dysphagia results from other causes [5,6]. Pharmacological actions, such as sedation, anticholinergic effects, and extrapyramidal side effects, may impair the deglutition reflex [3,4,7,8]. Here we describe a case of Ankylosing Spinal Hyperostosis (ASH), also known as Forestier’s disease [9-14], in which deterioration of depressive symptoms aggravated dysphagia despite not increasing the medication dosage during follow-up, and spontaneous remission occurred because of improvements in depression. We report the clinical course of this case along with a review of the literature.