J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2004 Dec;15(6):635-638.

A Case of Amnesia Complicated by Poisoning of the Amanita Pantherina

• Han J
• Kim H
• Lee W
• Kwon SK
• Kim HY
• Lee SW
• Kim YS

Abstract

Amanita pantherina and Amanita muscaria have been called hallucinogenic fungi. They contain ibotenic acid and muscimol. Patients may appear to be intoxicated or have apparent 'patherina-muscaria' syndrome, which is atropine-like, but fatality is rare. Confusion, dizziness, tiredness, visual and auditory hypersensitivity, space distortion, unawareness of time, dryness of the mouth, mydriasis and hallucination may occur. Also, in exceptionally rare severe poisoning cases, convulsion, coma and death may occur. A 50-year-old well-nourished and developed man was admitted to this hospital with a 30-minute history of semicoma and involuntary contraction of the extremities which had developed following mushroom ingestion 2 hours earlier. Ingested mushrooms were revealed to be A. pantherina by a mycologist. The patient recovered 7 hours later after only supportive management, but the next day he couldn't recalled any of his hospital duration from admission to 20 hours later. Only a few reports have precise descriptions of the subspecies of the genus and there was no reports on poisoning by A. pantherina in Korea. In addition, there are no reports of amnesia following poisoning by A. pantherina. For these reasons, we report this case, together with a review of the literature.

Keyword

Mushroom poisoning; Amnesia

MeSH Terms

Agaricales
Amanita*
Amnesia*
Coma
Dizziness
Eating
Extremities
Fungi
Hallucinations
Humans
Hypersensitivity
Ibotenic Acid
Korea
Middle Aged
Mouth
Muscimol
Mushroom Poisoning
Mydriasis
Poisoning*
Seizures
Ibotenic Acid
Muscimol