The Journal of nervous and mental disease
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Factitious disorder is characterized by the intentional feigning of physical or psychological signs and symptoms. The best known type of factitious disorder, Munchausen syndrome, is marked by a chronic unremitting course with repeated hospitalizations. The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency, psychopathological phenomenology, and diagnostic classification according to DSM-III-R in patients with factitious disorder presenting as neurological syndromes. ⋯ In these cases the additional diagnosis of personality disorder was made according to DSM-III-R criteria. We concluded that factitious disorder presenting with neurological syndromes may be more prevalent than generally assumed. Our findings confirm the idea of frequent coincidence of factitious and personality disorders.
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J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. · Aug 1995
Comparative StudyPsychiatric morbidity associated with motor vehicle accidents.
The primary purpose of this report was to determine the extent of psychiatric morbidity and comorbidity among a sample of recent victims of motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) in comparison to a nonaccident control population. Victims of recent MVAs (N = 158), who sought medical attention as a result of the MVA, were assessed in a University-based research clinic, 1 to 4 months after the accident for acute psychiatric and psychosocial consequences as well as for pre-MVA psychopathology using structured clinical interviews (Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale, SCID, SCID-II, LIFE Base). Age- and gender-matched controls (N = 93) who had had no MVAs in the past year served as controls. ⋯ A prior history of PTSD from earlier trauma also is associated with developing PTSD or a subsyndromal form of it (25.2%) (p = .0012). Personal injury MVAs exact substantial psychosocial costs on the victims. Early intervention, especially in vulnerable populations, might prevent some of this.
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Formal thought disorder (FTD), defined as abnormal speech, has been associated with schizophrenia and likened to fluent aphasia. Whether FTD differentiates subtypes of schizophrenics and discriminates schizophrenics from other patients is unclear. We studied this issue by analyzing ratings of FTD of 170 schizophrenics and 62 manics. ⋯ We assessed the discriminating ability of these factors, and compared these results to those from factors derived from Andreasen's positive/negative FTD construct, and to factors derived from speech and language diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia and mania in the proposed DSM-IV. Overall classifications were similar (91%, 91%, and 88%, respectively). We also found that FTD was related to emotional blunting, but not to other psychopathology.