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Cerebellar dysfunction plays a critical role in neurodevelopmental disorders with long-term behavioral and neuropsychiatric symptoms. A 43-year-old woman with a cerebellum arteriovenous malformation and history of behavioral dysregulation since childhood is described. After the rupture of the cerebellar malformation in adulthood, her behavior morphed into specific psychiatric symptoms and cognitive deficits occurred. The neuropsychological assessment evidenced impaired performance in attention, visuospatial, memory, and language domains. Moreover, psychiatric assessment indicated a borderline personality disorder. Brain MRI examination detected macroscopic abnormalities in the cerebellar posterior lobules VI, VIIa (Crus I), and IX, and in the posterior area of the vermis, regions usually involved in cognitive and emotional processing. The described patient suffered from cognitive and behavioral symptoms that are part of the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome. This case supports the hypothesis of a cerebellar role in personality disorders emphasizing the importance of also examining the cerebellum in the presence of behavioral disturbances in children and adults.

A 36-year-old man was suffering from brief, unilateral and short-lasting pain attacks always associated with marked homolateral tearing and conjunctival injection, both presenting in a cluster fashion. An arteriovenous malformation was subsequently discovered in the homolateral cerebellopontine angle. The clinical picture shares similarities with both cluster headache and trigeminal neuralgia, although it can not be accurately placed with either of these forms. Patients with similar symptoms have previously been described in detail, and on the basis of these few descriptions a new syndrome “short-lasting” unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with conjunctival injection, tearing, sweating, and rhinorrhoea has been postulated. Assuming the validity of this syndrome as an entity, this case is in all probability its first “symptomatic” example. Careful evaluation of the varieties of cluster headache and trigeminal neuralgia, and the reporting of similar new cases as they arise are necessary to establish the nosologic boundaries of this syndrome.