Bromism from Daily Over Intake of Bromide Salt

Bromide intoxication today is an infrequent disease, but preparations containing bromide are still available in nonprescription compounds, on the French market. We report a case with bromide intoxication due to daily over intake (∼20 tablets per day; i.e. total elemental bromide intake ∼ 6 g/day) of calcium bromo-galactogluconate (Calcibronat®) for 1.5 months. A 30-year-old woman with a long history of psychotropic drug abuse was hospitalized in a psychiatric department for neuropsychological manifestations. She presented a seriously disturbed mental status with confusion, disorientation, auditory and visual hallucinations, and loss of short-time memory. A markedly increased serum bromide level of 1717 mg/L (21.5 mEq/L) measured on the first day after her admission confirmed the diagnosis of chronic bromism suspected based on her symptomatology. During her hospitalization, bromide plasma concentrations were measured and monitored using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, a sensitive and very spe...