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Prepartum Psychosis and Neonaticide: Rare Case Study and Forensic‐Psychiatric Synthesis of Literature |
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| Authors: | Maria‐Valeria Karakasi M.D. Maria Markopoulou M.D. Ioannis K. Tentes B.Sc. M.Sc. Ph.D. Panagiotis N. Tsikouras M.D. Ph.D. Epameinondas Vasilikos M.D. Pavlos Pavlidis M.D. Ph.D. |
| Affiliation: | 1. Adult Psychiatry, Psychiatric Department, G. Papanikolaou General Hospital of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece;2. Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Psychiatric Hospital of Thessaloniki, Stavroupolis, Thessaloniki, Greece;3. Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece;4. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University General Hospital of Evros, School of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece;5. Laboratory of Forensic Sciences, School of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece |
| Abstract: | Peripartum psychosis is a rare but serious psychiatric disorder characterized by the presence of a mood episode with psychotic features. Although controversy surrounds the nosological status of peripartum mental disorders, these conditions continue to be of exceptional interest to the medical and forensic mental health communities. The aim of this study was to report a rare case of prepartum psychosis which escalated to the endpoint of neonaticide and summarize literature on peripartum mental disorders and infanticide. A 30‐year‐old mother murdered her newborn with the spike of her serum delivery system and planned to commit suicide while in hospital after hallucinating due to an acute puerperal psychotic disorder with a prepartum onset and postpartum deterioration. Her disorder was not managed until neonaticide. Throughout this paper, the significance of a multidisciplinary approach for the optimal management of these incidents is highlighted and diagnostic as well as therapeutic issues are addressed. |
| Keywords: | forensic science forensic psychiatry prepartum puerperal postpartum perinatal depression psychosis affective disorders mood disorders pregnancy delivery neonaticide infanticide filicide biochemistry obstetrics |