What is the difference between compulsive polydipsia and psychogenic polydipsia?
Patients with psychogenic polydipsia have severe psychoses such as schizophrenia. Some physicians use the term compulsive polydipsia to describe patients who they believe have primary polydipsia due to neurosis or some other less severe form of mental illness. However, many of these patients also complain of thirst and are no likelier than the rest of us to be suffering from a mental disability. Therefore, I believe they also have a thirst disorder (dipsogenic DI). I do not like or use the term compulsive polydipsia.
