In 1913, the famed Harvard neurosurgeon, Harvey Cushing described the syndrome that bears his name, showing the relationship between hyperadrenalism and the presence of sleeplessness, inability to concentrate visual disturbances, and “fits of unnatural irritability with periods of depression”.
He described eight patients in 1932 with moon faces, truncal obesity, hypertension, polyphagia, polydipsia, polycythemia and pulmonary infections.
In the decades since Cushing’s observations, substantial progress has been made toward identifying the mechanisms by which excess corticicosteroids affect mood, anxiety and cognition.
Hyperadrenocorticism caused by excess secretion from the pituitary gland. It is caused by an adenoma, carcinoma, bilateral hyperplasia or unilateral hyperplasia.
Cushing syndrome
