Clinical Problems in Consultation Psychiatry and The Break-Dancing Koala Bear

I ran across an old Clinical Problems in Consultation Psychiatry (CPCP) presentation by a couple of sharp medical students in 2014. They presented it at one of my morning consult rounds and it’s about Charles Bonnet Syndrome.

They did a very nice job and it compares fairly well with the University of Iowa Ophthalmology Dept summary. One of the authors of that summary is my retinal specialist, Dr. Ian Han, who did the surgery on my detached retina about 4 years ago. It also has a link to a great YouTube video of a woman who has Charles Bonnet Syndrome. It’s not a psychiatric disorder although ironically one of the treatments for it may sometimes be antipsychotic medications.

The other thing about this presentation is that the students’ fictional case description mentions that the patient had visions of “a break-dancing koala bear” among other things. I can’t remember whether I was the one who told them about a video on the internet that showed a break-dancing stuffed koala bear—or if it was the other way around! At any rate, I remember seeing it around that time, but of course I can’t find it now.