Basic and Clinical 269 March, April 2022 Volume 13, Number 2 Case Report Psychiatric Onset Alexander Disease: An Important Challenge in Neuropsychiatric Diagnosis: A Case Report Hedieh Arshiany 1 , Behzad Ezzatian 2 , Valentin Artounian 1 , Fatemeh Alizadeh 3 , Fatemeh Mohammadian 3 * 1. Department of Psychiatry, Roozbeh Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2. School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 3. Department of Genomic Psychiatry and Behavioral Genomics, Roozbeh Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. * Corresponding Author: Fatemeh Mohammadian Address: Department of Genomic Psychiatry and Behavioral Genomics, Roozbeh Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Tel: +98 (912) 7907416 E-mail: fmohammadianr@sina.tums.ac.ir Introduction: Alexander disease is a heterogeneous group of diseases with various manifesations based on the age of disease onset. This rare leukodysrophy syndrome with mutations in the GFAP gene could present with developmental delay and seizure in the infantile form to ataxia and bulbar palsy in adulthood. However, psychiatric symptoms are not well- defned and are usually evaluated after disease diagnosis, not before disease invesigations. Case Report : Our patient is a 52-year-old Iranian woman with a hisory of depression since 17 years ago, a suicidal attempt two years ago, and ingesion of a large amount of opium with the intention of suicide 2 months ago. She was presented with disorientation and probably a delirious sate in the las interview. Eventually, in comprehensive invesigations, white matter hyperintensity in MRI and leukodysrophy was diagnosed to determine the cause of these changes, we did a gene sudy, found whole exon deletion of the GFAP gene, and made a diagnosis of late-onset Alexander disease. Conclusion: Neurological-onset manifesation of Alexander disease, specifcally late-onset form, is the mos common clinical picture of disease and was seen in about 90% of patients, but psychiatric symptoms are not well-known, and psychiatric-onset disease was not described yet. Various gene mutations were described in late-onset Alexander disease; however, the large whole exon deletion which was revealed in our patient is a novel mutation and signifcantly needs to be explored. Here authors describe a late-onset Alexander disease with psychiatric- onset symptoms and novel large exon deletion in the GFAP gene. Article info: Received: 05 Dec 2020 Firs Revision: 28 Dec 2021 Accepted: 02 Jan 2021 Available Online: 01 Mar 2022 Keywords: Alexander disease, Late-inset, GFAP mutation, Psychiatric symptoms, Leukodysrophy Citation Arshiany, H., Ezzatian, B., Artounian, V., Alizadeh, F., Mohammadian, F. Psychiatric Onset Alexander Disease: An Important Challenge in Neuropsychiatric Diagnosis: A Case Report. Basic and Clinical Neuroscience, 13(2), 269-274. http:// dx.doi.org/10.32598/bcn.2021.1551.1 http://dx.doi.org/10.32598/bcn.2021.1551.1 Use your device to scan and read the artcle online A B S T R A C T