Swallowing Foreign Bodies as an Example of Impulse Control Disorder in a Patient With Intellectual Disabilities A Case Report

• Published in: Psychiatry (Edgmont (Pa. : Township)) Vol. 7; no. 9; pp. 34 - 37
• Main Authors: te Wildt, Bert T., Tettenborn, Christian, Schneider, Udo, Ohlmeier, Martin D., Zedler, Markus, Zakhalev, Roman, Krueger, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Matrix Medical Communications 01.09.2010
• Subjects: Case Report
• ISSN: 1550-5952; 1555-5194

Objective. Foreign body ingestion can be a challenge to multiprofessional approaches involving medical, surgical, neurological, and psychiatric teams. Case presentation. A 41-year-old male patient with intellectual disabilities presented after having swallowed approximately 20 sharp objects. While admitted to a psychiatric ward, surgeons removed a glove from his stomach endoscopically and pharmacologically facilitated the objects' complication-free bowel passage. The patient explained the swallowing as a means to release himself from tension induced by stress. His aberrant behavior also seemed to serve as a means to exert pressure on psychosocial workers. Other deviations included the pushing of sharp objects under the skin and multiple paraphiliae. As a child, the patient suffered from early psychological and physical traumatization. Both parents were allegedly physically abusive alcoholics. Conclusion. Apart from possible alcohol embryopathy and traumatic brain damage, meningitis, which the patient had at the age of three, is discussed as the most likely reason for his oligophrenia, associated with left-sided, temporo-parietal atrophy and epilepsy.