Man consults ChatGPT for diet advice, three months later diagnosed with bromide intoxication: Know what it is and how serious it can get

A man decides to overhaul his diet, he’s concerned about table salt (sodium chloride) and wants to eliminate chloride altogether. In comes ChatGPT, the AI advisor, suggesting a replacement… which ends up being sodium bromide.

He takes the advice, skips normal salt, and starts adding sodium bromide to his meals. Fast forward three months, and things go off the rails. He’s in the emergency department (ED), experiencing full-blown psychiatric symptoms, paranoia, hallucinations, and all that.The case has been published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine Clinical Cases.Diagnostics? His lab results are weird, his blood shows what looks like high chloride levels, but it’s actually a false flag thanks to bromide messing with the measurements.

Doctors look into it, hit up Poison Control, and land on bromism as the likely cause.In the hospital, he’s thirsty and paranoid about drinking water, then starts hallucinating and tries to bolt out of the ward. That lands him in an involuntary psych hold, and he gets an antipsychotic along with fluids and electrolyte corrections. Slowly, things stabilize—his mental state clears, and he eventually admits he’d been following ChatGPT’s recommendation.

He also mentions other symptoms: acne, weird red skin bumps (maybe a hypersensitivity reaction), muscle coordination issues, fatigue, insomnia, and an unrelenting thirst—all pointing toward bromide toxicity."This case also highlights how the use of artificial intelligence (AI) can potentially contribute to the development of preventable adverse health outcomes. Based on the timeline of this case, it appears that the patient either consulted ChatGPT 3.5 or 4.0 when considering how he might remove chloride from this diet.

Unfortunately, we do not have access to his ChatGPT conversation log and we will never be able to know with certainty what exactly the output he received was, since individual responses are unique and build from previous inputs," the researchers have said.

"Thus, it is important to consider that ChatGPT and other AI systems can generate scientific inaccuracies, lack the ability to critically discuss results, and ultimately fuel the spread of misinformation.

While it is a tool with much potential to provide a bridge between scientists and the nonacademic population, AI also carries the risk for promulgating decontextualized information, as it is highly unlikely that a medical expert would have mentioned sodium bromide when faced with a patient looking for a viable substitute for sodium chloride," they have warned.

What is bromide intoxication?

Bromide intoxication happens when too much bromide — a chemical element related to chlorine — builds up in your body.

Bromide itself isn’t something you’ll normally find in your everyday food in high amounts. Bromide can still sneak into your system from certain medications, supplements, or imported products. The problem is, your body doesn’t get rid of bromide super quickly. It competes with chloride (yes, like in table salt) for space in your cells.

When bromide sticks around, it starts messing with your nervous system.Common symptoms? They can be sneaky and wide-ranging — headaches, confusion, memory problems, dizziness, slurred speech, tremors, and in severe cases, hallucinations or psychosis.

Because the symptoms are vague, people sometimes go months without realizing bromide is the culprit.

How do people get it today?

Old or imported sedatives that still contain bromide compoundsCertain dietary supplements or “detox” products that use bromide salts without clear labelingBrominated vegetable oil (BVO) in some soft drinks (less common now in the US, phased out in the UK and Canada)Very rarely, exposure from industrial chemicals or contaminated waterIf you keep taking in bromide faster than your body can flush it out, it accumulates — that’s when intoxication kicks in.Diagnosis usually involves blood or urine tests to measure bromide levels. But here’s the catch: because bromide interferes with certain lab readings, it can look like you have a severe electrolyte imbalance when you don’t. That can lead to misdiagnosis unless the doctor specifically thinks to check for bromide.