Background:
Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDS) comprise a group of heterogeneous hereditary connective tissue
disorders [1, 2]. Psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, panic disorder, agoraphobia, schizophrenia,
neurodevelopmental disorders, personality disorder, eating disorders, substance misuse and interpersonal issues have been
reported in the literature to be associated with EDS [1-3].
Objectives:
The case of a 15-year -old male who was hospitalized after a suicide attempt by gunshot was discovered to
have symptoms suggestive of EDS is presented in this paper along with the results of a literature search of psychiatric
manifestations of EDS in children and adolescents.
Methods:
Literature review was conducted on the UpToDate website on March 11, 2020 to review symptoms of EhlersDanlos Syndrome for the purpose of preliminary diagnosis of this patient. Additional literature search was conducted on
PubMed on 4/2/20 at 12:10 P.M. and on 4/9/20 at 10:51 P.M. and on the search engine Google on 4/2/20 at 12:25 P.M.
On May 11, 2020 at 2 P.M., another web search was conducted with review of 6 different websites pertaining to EhlersDanlos Syndrome.
Results:
A systematic review of psychiatric manifestations of Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes revealed a strong incidence of
psychiatric symptoms.
Conclusion:
Our patient’s psychiatric symptoms of depression, suicidal ideations, anxiety and social and educational
struggles may have been at least partially due to chronic pain- abdominal, headache and musculoskeletal, and social
ostracization associated with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Education regarding this illness helped our patient’s recovery as
he came to understand why he was so “odd” and the cause of his multisystemic chronic pain.
