Valuation of the psychiatric damage. Considerations about two clinical cases

Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2003 Jul-Aug;7(4):111-4.

Abstract

We report a description of two mothers who scrupulously followed clinical controls and tests advised during pregnancy within a hospital environment, and who then gave birth to babies with serious deformation pathologies. In both cases, the seriousness of the psychiatric damage, is obviously useful for the medico-legal assessments. We have studied in both cases their mental make-up, understood as stable relationships between parts of the mind (thought, language, perception...). We have observed that in a fragile make-up a non significant event in many ways can cause an extremely violent reaction, whilst on the contrary, a serious event in "solid" people may not cause damaging consequences. The assessment of the mental make-up, conditions the degree of psychiatric damage, which is useful to the medical examiner, and is of fundamental importance for the individual choice of a therapeutic process.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Evaluation Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Antidepressive Agents / therapeutic use
  • Brain / abnormalities
  • Cesarean Section
  • Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18 / genetics
  • Cleft Palate / genetics
  • Female
  • Health Services Accessibility
  • Hospitals, General
  • Humans
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Infant, Newborn, Diseases / mortality
  • Infant, Newborn, Diseases / physiopathology
  • Italy
  • Legislation, Medical
  • Monosomy / genetics
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnancy Outcome
  • Prenatal Care / legislation & jurisprudence
  • Prenatal Care / methods
  • Prenatal Diagnosis
  • Professional-Patient Relations*
  • Puerperal Disorders / psychology*
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / diagnosis
  • Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / etiology
  • Stress, Psychological / etiology*
  • Tranquilizing Agents / therapeutic use

Substances

  • Antidepressive Agents
  • Tranquilizing Agents