Valuation of the psychiatric damage. Considerations about two clinical cases

• Published in: European review for medical and pharmacological sciences Vol. 7; no. 4; pp. 111 - 114
• Main Authors: Pàstina, U, Curci, S, Saraceni, C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Italy 01.07.2003
• Subjects: 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; Italy
• ISSN: 1128-3602

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.