Short report
Brittle Addison's disease: a new variation on a familiar theme
Geoffrey V Gill, Gareth Williams
Department of
Medicine, University Hospital Aintree, Longmoor Lane, Liverpool L9
7AL, UK
Submitted 16 April
1999;
Accepted 18 August 1999
Unstable and unpredictable disease control in diabetes or
asthma, with frequent hospitalisations, is frequently referred to as
`brittle'. We describe two cases of Addison's disease with recurrent
hospitalisations in hypo-adrenal crises. Both patients had significant
psychosocial disruption, and failure to take hydrocortisone replacement
therapy was admitted in one and biochemically proven in the other. We
propose that `brittle' Addison's disease in these cases was due to
poor treatment compliance related to psychosocial factors. These
features have particular similarities with the syndrome of brittle diabetes.
Keywords: Addison's disease; hypo-adrenalism; diabetes; asthma
© 2000 by The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine
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