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Pregnancy delusion hinders the diagnosis of achalasia in a patient with life-threatening emaciation

Abnormal eating behaviour among psychiatric patients is associated with several psychiatric conditions, but may also be caused by a comorbid physical condition. Clinical assessment of a psychiatric patient is often challenging, which contributes to an increased rate of undiagnosed medical conditions...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lopes, Rafael Dias, Banzato, Claudio E. M., Santos, Amilton
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4370006/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25988026
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/omcr/omu022
Descripción
Sumario:Abnormal eating behaviour among psychiatric patients is associated with several psychiatric conditions, but may also be caused by a comorbid physical condition. Clinical assessment of a psychiatric patient is often challenging, which contributes to an increased rate of undiagnosed medical conditions and an increased mortality rate. We present the clinical case of a 46-year-old woman with a long-term delusion of triplet pregnancy, and recurrent vomiting. She experienced intense weight loss and eventually faced a life-threatening situation due to achalasia, which was incidentally discovered on a chest X-ray during her second psychiatric hospitalization, after several other tests, including upper digestive endoscopy, returned normal results. After a successful laparoscopic Heller's myotomy, her digestive symptoms greatly improved. This report illustrates the difficulty of establishing clinical-surgical diagnoses in psychotic patients, as some delusions seem to explain clinical complaints, masking and delaying the diagnosis of comorbid conditions.