Publication Name	World Journal of Psychiatry
Manuscript ID	114524
Country	Canada

Category	Psychiatry
Manuscript Type	Case Report
Article Title	Adjustment disorder triggered by a unique and pervasive urban stressor, traffic cones: A case report
Manuscript Source	Unsolicited Manuscript
All Author List	Emmanuel Stip
Funding Agency and Grant Number
Corresponding Author	Emmanuel Stip, Chairman, Emeritus Professor, FRCP (C), Full Professor, Professor Emeritus, Senior Researcher, department of psychiatry and addictology, University of Montreal, 2325 Ste Cunegonde, #210, Montreal H3J 2X1, Quebec, Canada. emmanuel.stip@umontreal.ca
Key Words	Urban stress; Syndrome with city name; Conophobia; Phobia; Road rage; Lipoma; Montreal syndrome; Stockholm syndrome; Violence; Case report
Core Tip	This report presents the first medically documented case of “Montreal syndrome” cone-induced urban rage (conophobia) in an otherwise healthy adult. A salient built-environment trigger (ubiquitous orange traffic cones) precipitated impulsive driving and acute affective distress; organic causes were excluded (benign scalp lipoma). The phenotype spans anxiety, avoidance, mood disturbance, and road-rage behavior, remaining distinct from recurrent intermittent explosive disorder. The case reframes urban infrastructure as a psychiatric stressor, situates it among city-named syndromes, and urges clinician awareness and urban-planning responses; cognitive behavior therapy/arts-based coping proved helpful.
Citation	Stip E. Adjustment disorder triggered by a unique and pervasive urban stressor, traffic cones: A case report. World J Psychiatry 2026; In press

Received	2025-09-22 07:15
Peer-Review Started	2025-09-22 07:15
First Decision by Editorial Office Director	2025-11-10 06:30
Return for Revision	2025-11-10 06:30
Revised	2025-11-16 18:49
Publication Fee Transferred
Second Decision by Editor	2026-02-13 02:37
Second Decision by Editor-in-Chief
Final Decision by Editorial Office Director	2026-02-13 03:38
Articles in Press	2026-02-13 03:38
Edit the Manuscript by Language Editor
Typeset the Manuscript

ISSN	2220-3206 (online)
Open Access	This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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