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Thirst - excessive

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• Treatment

Definition:

Excessive thirst is an abnormal feeling of always needing to drink fluids.

Alternative Names:

Increased thirst; Polydipsia; Excessive thirst

Considerations:

Drinking lots of water is usually healthy. However, the urge to drink too much beyond a certain limit may be the result of an underlying disease, either physical or emotional. Excessive thirst may be a symptom of high blood sugar (hyperglycemia), and can be an important clue in detecting diabetes .

Excessive thirst is a fairly common symptom. It is often the reaction to fluid loss during exercise, or to eating salty foods.

Common Causes:

• A recent salty or spicy meal
• Bleeding enough to cause a significant decrease in blood volume
• Diabetes
• Diabetes insipidus
• Drugs such as anticholinergics, demeclocycline, diuretics, phenothiazines
• Excessive loss of water and salt (possibly due to not drinking enough water, profuse sweating , diarrhea, or vomiting)
• Loss of body fluids from the bloodstream into the tissues due to:
  • Conditions such as severe infections ( sepsis ) or burns
  • Heart, liver, or kidney failure
• Psychogenic polydipsia, the result of a mental disorder, is a condition causes a person to drink too much

• Review Date: 1/18/2007
• Reviewed By: Benjamin W. Van Voorhees, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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