This is one of the interesting occurrences that can present on the medical floors, emergency rooms, or inpatient units. 

A patient comes in with an established diagnosis of schizophrenia and is currently taking ziprasidone. The person is constantly asking for glasses of water and drinking water excessively throughout the day. 

You might be thinking what is the harm in drinking water, isn’t staying hydrated a healthy behavior? 

…But you order a basic metabolic panel and find the persons sodium is 125 mEq/L. 

Now the panic sets in, it’s time to worry and the patient continues to complain of feeling thirsty and is noted to be urinating frequently. 

There are a few possibilities for the persons behavior, but we need to consider psychogenic polydipsia or primary polydipsia. This was first described in the 1930s in patients with schizophrenia who drank water excessively resulting in low serum sodium levels. 

The cause is unknown, but these patients may have an acquired defect in the hypothalamic thirst regulation. Medications have also been associated with worsening of psychogenic polydipsia. It’s thought to be related to the anticholinergic effects of many of these medications. Examples include carbamazepine, chlorpromazine, oxcarbazepine, haloperidol, and valproate. 

Psychogenic polydipsia (PP) is common, and it’s usually associated with schizophrenia but can occur in other psychotic, mood, and anxiety disorders. Some users of MDMA also develop PP. 

PP is a primary problem where the patient is drinking too much water. This results in a dilution of the blood and thus a low sodium level (defined as < 135 mEq/L) and low serum osmolality. The urine will also be dilute < 100 mOsmol/kg with low urine sodium. 

Two other potential places where we can see polyuria are in cases of hyperglycemia from uncontrolled diabetes and nephrogenic diabetes insipidus. The key distinction in the first case is hyperglycemia. The water is drawn out by osmotic diuresis secondary to excess glucose in the urine. The key labs here are a fasting glucose and a urine analysis which should show hyperglycemia and glucose in the urine. In nephrogenic diabetes insipidus the brain secretes ADH just fine, but the kidney does not respond to it. The urine will be dilute, but the serum sodium level will be high not low separating it from psychogenic polydipsia.

Treatment includes fluid restriction to 1000-1500 mL/day, this can be difficult to enforce even on an inpatient unit. The person may need to be watched because sources like the bathroom sink or even toilet may be used to consume more water. This is usually enough of a treatment, but should the sodium remain low you can add sodium chloride tablets 1-3 grams daily. 

In severe cases where the sodium drops below 120 the person can have a seizure. In these cases, it’s best to handle the fluid replenishment on the medical floor with 3% saline. 

You must be careful not to correct the sodium too rapidly as it can result in the dreaded central pontine myelinolysis which can result in quadriparesis. That’s why we correct the sodium at a rate of no more than 10 mmol/L/24 h or 0.5 mEQ/L/h