deafness

Recent research has thrown considerable doubt on the claim that King George III suffered from variegate porphyria, but indicates that he suffered recurrent attacks of mania as part of his bipolar disorder. George III’s last episode of ill health occurred during the final decade of his life (1810–20). This has been diagnosed as chronic mania with an element of dementia. During this period the king was blind and possibly deaf, which may have contributed to his psychiatric condition.

Acute ototoxicity is a rare but important complication of antithyroid drugs. Although previous cases have been reported in the medical literature, these cases occurred in younger patients with serological evidence of lupus-like syndrome with positive antidouble-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid and antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies. We describe the case of a 68-year-old Caucasian male who developed deafness and tinnitus one week after being prescribed carbimazole.