Autoamputation in Psychosis: Diagnostic Issues

Autoamputation of the tongue.

Autoamputation is an uncommon phenomenon that has been reported for the fingers, toes, appendix, ovary, spleen, etc. Autoamputation of the tongue has never been reported. An elderly man with carcinoma of lateral pharyngeal wall and tonsil presented with an autoamputated tongue that was attached to the oral cavity with a thin band. The patient required detachment of the tongue and tracheostomy f...

Diagnostic Issues

Diagnostic issues in abdominal tuberculosis.

OBJECTIVE To analyze the modes of presentation and diagnostic issues in the management of abdominal tuberculosis at a tertiary care hospital in a developing country, where most of the established diagnostic modalities are available. SETTING The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi. METHODS This study is a retrospective review of medical records of all inpatients, diagnosed to have abdomina...

Postpartum Psychosis: Updates and Clinical Issues

DSM-5 defines psychotic disorders as abnormalities in 1 or more of 5 domains: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, grossly disorganized or abnormal motor behavior, and negative symptoms. The current psychiatric nosology does not recognize postpartum psychosis as a distinct disorder. DSM-IV-TR allowed clinicians to apply the “with postpartum onset” specifier to brief psychotic disor...

Intervention research in psychosis: issues related to clinical assessment.

This article discusses efforts to optimize clinical assessment for intervention effectiveness trials. Generalizability is a crucial issue; investigators should choose their inclusion/exclusion criteria to increase subject inclusion and should collect data on the selection process to determine the extent of selection biases. Intervention research requires assessment instruments appropriate for a...