The Quarterly journal of medicine
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The frequency and type of psychiatric disease were investigated in 40 patients suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 27 control subjects with rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease. The psychiatric morbidity at the time of interview was the same in the two groups, but the patients with SLE had experienced more episodes of psychiatric illness in the past, and psychotic symptoms occurred only in this group. ⋯ Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain was performed in 15 patients with SLE. Abnormalities were more often present in those with neurological disease; no such correlation was found with psychiatric illness.