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PubMed1984

Local anesthetics in dental practice.

Local anesthetics are the most widely used drugs in dentistry today. Knowledge of the pharmacology and toxicology of these agents will result in their intelligent and judicious use. The choice of local anesthetic should be individualized for each patient. The duration of the dental procedure should be weighed against the duration of action of the local anesthetic; a decision should be made as to whether a vasoconstrictor is needed to prolong its action. However, if the duration of numbness is too long, the possibility of self-mutilation must be considered in certain patients (for example, children and the mentally retarded). In other patients with whom postoperative pain is expected, it may be beneficial to administer a long-acting local anesthetic such as bupivacaine for control of postoperative pain. The total dose of local anesthetic and vasoconstrictor must be determined for each patient based upon body weight; the maximal dosages for each agent should be known. Small children or frail individuals will require below average dosages. The use of a vasoconstrictor may constitute the limiting factor to the total number of local anesthetic cartridges that can be administered safely over a given period of time. Certain medical problems, such as cardiovascular system impairments or hyperthyroidism, may influence the choice of anesthetic and the quantity of vasoconstrictor. An understanding of the physicochemical properties of local anesthetics is also important to a rational process of selection. There are several causes for failure to achieve profound regional anesthesia. These include inflammation and/or infection, anatomic variation, intravascular injection, accessory innervation, and deflection of the needle. Inflammation and infection reduce the efficacy of a local anesthetic by reducing its bioavailability. Local anesthetics with low pKa values (for instance, mepivacaine) are the most effective in this clinical situation. Other causes of inadequate regional anesthesia are primarily related to technique of administration and can be circumvented by the use of the periodontal ligament injection. A comprehensive review of this technique and its application has been presented by the Council on Dental Materials and Equipment of the American Dental Association. Occasionally, a clinician may be unsuccessful at achieving regional anesthesia despite these additional measures. Highly anxious dental patients or patients with a genuine tolerance to local anesthetics normally pose the most problems. Transitional block or threshold block phenomena should also be suspected in these situations.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Anesthesia, Dental↗
PubMed1983

Clinical vampirism. A presentation of 3 cases and a re-evaluation of Haigh, the 'acid-bath murderer'.

Clinical vampirism is named after the mythical vampire, and is a recognizable, although rare, clinical entity characterized by periodic compulsive blood-drinking, affinity with the dead and uncertain identity. It is hypothetically the expression of an inherited archaic myth, the act of taking blood being a ritual that gives temporary relief. From ancient times vampirists have given substance to belief in the existence of supernatural vampires. Four vampirists, including Haigh, the 'acid-bath murderer', are described. From childhood they cut themselves, drank their own, exogenous human or animal blood to relieve a craving, dreamed of blood-shed, associated with the dead, and had a changing identity. They were intelligent, with no family mental or social pathology. Some self-cutters are auto-vampirists; females are not likely to assault others for blood, but males are potentially dangerous. Vampirism may be a cause of unpredictable repeated assault and murder, and should be looked for in violent criminals who are self-mutilators. No specific treatment is known.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

[Spectacles for dogs and cats (author's transl)].

Indications for using spectacles in dogs and cats are reviewed. These indications are classified into the following categories: (1) correction of visual acuity, (2) protection against external irritants such as ultraviolet rays and wind, (3) prevention of self-mutilation and (4) psychological reasons. The only justifiable indications for the use of spectacles or sun-glasses in dogs or cats consist in the treatment or prevention of some ophthalmic disorders.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Factitious vesicocutaneous fistula: an enigma in diagnosis and treatment.

A case report of a patient with a recurrent factitial vesicocutaneous and a tensor fasciae latae musculocutaneous flap were employed in reconstruction. Difficulty in diagnosis and treatment of this patient with factitial disease is emphasized. Excessive hospitalization and cost reflect these difficulties. A life-threatening disease was modified by planned reconstruction coordinated with antidepressant medication and psychotherapy. Treatment centered on avoiding insight and maintaining denial ASA defense mechanism. The transference of self-mutilation in the suprapubic region to the donor thigh was most important in this patient's survival.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Lesch-Nyhan syndrome in an Arab family. Detection and biochemical manifestation of heterozygosity.

A large Arab family affected with the rare X-linked Lesch-Nyhan syndrome is reported on. Two hemizygous boys, two and nine years of age, had the classical biochemical and clinical-neurological syndrome. The activity of erythrocyte hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT) was below the detectable limit (greater than 0.1% of normal). They were mentally and physically retarded and exhibited spasticity and choreoathetosis; the older of the two also exhibited self-mutilation. The mother and three of her seven daughters, all clinically asymptomatic, were proven to be heterozygous for HGPRT deficiency, by demonstration of an increased rate of de novo purine synthesis in cultured skin fibroblasts. Erythrocyte HGPRT activity was normal in the three heterozygous daughters, but was significantly reduced in the mother. However, in all four heterozygotes, erythrocyte HGPRT/adenine phosphoribosyltransferase ratio was lower than in all other family members. All heterozygotes had blood uric acid levels within the normal range, although higher than in the normal women in the family. The ratio uric acid/creatinine concentration in the urine was significantly elevated in one of the heterozygotes, and in the upper normal limit in two others, indicating excessive purine production.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Youth in crisis: dimensions of self-destructive conduct among adolescent prisoners.

Self-mutilation and attempted suidcide among adolescent prisoners are explored in relation to concrete coping tests posed in prison and to self-esteem problems posed by failure of external (family) and internal (peer) support systems. Crisis sequences are traced using verbatim excerpts from interviews with self-destructive prisoners and conceptualized in terms of enduring adolescent needs and concerns. Some general observations regarding strategies of intervention with crisisprone prisoners are included.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1978

Ataxia and disorders of purine metabolism: defects in hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase and clinical ataxia.

A relationship between disordered metabolism of purines and the central nervous system has been established by the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. In this disorder a virtually complete defect in the activity of HGPRT is associated with a syndrome of severe mental retardation, choreoathetoid cerebral palsy, and bizarre, self-mutilative behavior. In patients with partial defects in HGPRT, two have had symptoms that have been labeled spinocerebellar. Neither were appreciably ataxic, and the relationship between the symptoms and the enzyme defect remains to be established. Analysis of HGPRT in members of a large kindred with spinocerebellar degeneration revealed normal levels of the enzyme. These observations suggest that a relationship between the activity of HGPRT and clinical ataxia is remote.

Ataxia↗
PubMed1994

Trauma and the development of borderline personality disorder.

Prolonged and severe trauma, particularly trauma that occurs early in the life cycle, tends to result in a chronic inability to modulate emotions. When this occurs, people can mobilize a range of behaviors that are best understood as attempts at self-soothing. Some of these attempts include clinging and indiscriminate relationships with others in which old traumas are re-enacted over time, as well as more self-directed behaviors such as self-mutilation, eating disorders, and substance abuse. Usually, these behaviors will coexist. Patients with complicated trauma histories often repetitively attempt suicide or engage in chronic self-destructive behavior, and need to address issues of childhood trauma, neglect, and abandonment, both in the past and as re-experienced in current relationships. When treating these patients, therapists must anticipate that painful affects related to interpersonal safety, anger, and emotional needs may give rise to dissociative episodes, which may, in turn, be accompanied by increased self-destructive behavior. The therapy must clarify how current stresses are experienced as a return of past traumas and how small disruptions in present relationships are seen as a repetition of prior abandonment. As part of this, it is essential that the therapist provide validation and support, and avoid participating in a re-enactment of the trauma. Fear needs to be tamed in order for people to be able to think and be conscious of current needs. This bodily response of fear can be mitigated by safety of attachments, security of meaning schemes, and by a body whose reactions to environmental stress can be predicted and controlled. One of the great mysteries of the processing of traumatic experience is that as long as the trauma is experienced as speechless terror, the body continues to keep score and react to conditioned stimuli as a return of the trauma. When the mind is able to create symbolic representations of these past experiences, however, there often seems to be a taming of terror, a desomatization of experience. As Ducey and van der Kolk found in the Rorschachs of Vietnam veterans, patients were unresponsive to outside influences (good or bad) as long as they remained in a state of psychic numbing. Faced with intrusions of past trauma in their current emotional life, patients' initial sense of being overwhelmed was mastered only when a link between past trauma and current perceptions became understood.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Borderline Personality Disorder↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome: report on two brothers.

Lesch-Nyhan syndrome is a rare X-linked disease characterized by over-production of uric acid and a central nervous system (CNS) disorder consisting of mental retardation, spasticity, choreoathetosis, and a compulsive form of self-mutilation. A deficiency in hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (HPRT) provides the underlying metabolic basis for this disease. A 12 month-old male baby who had orange crystals over the diapers since he was 3 months old was brought to our hospital due to developmental delay. Mental retardation and athetosis were also noted. Chemical analysis revealed hyperuricemia (uric acid 8.6 mg/dl). Urine routine showed microscopic hematuria and uric acid crystals. The activity of HPRT in erythrocyte lysates of parents were both within normal limits, but that of the patient was very low (0.0547 nm/min/mg protein, < 0.05% of control). His younger brother was born 2 months after this disorder diagnosed in this patient. The younger brother was noted to have uric acid crystals over the diapers when he was 40 days old and hyperuricemia (10.6 mg/dl) showed up later. He was also a case of Lesch-Nyhan syndrome since the activity of HPRT in erythrocyte lysates was also low (0.0327 nmol/min/mg protein, < 0.05% of control). Further studies, including carrier detection and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis, could be helpful for genetic counseling. This syndrome is rare among Chinese, and this may be due to underdiagnosis.

Family Health↗
PubMed1994

Use of naltrexone for treatment of psychogenically induced dermatoses in five zoo animals.

Naltrexone was used successfully in controlling self-mutilation behavior in 3 zoo animals from 2 families (Felidae and Sciuridae). It had no effect on 2 other zoo animals from 2 families (Canidae and Ursidae). Long-term administration of glucocorticoids was not satisfactory in controlling the behaviors, and concerns were raised about potential long-term adverse effects, especially with regard to fertility. Detrimental effects were not noticed in any of the zoo animals treated with naltrexone. Two males successfully sired healthy offspring.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Self-castration with suicide].

Suicide of a 31 year old man with multiple slashes and stab wounds including complete amputation of penis, scrotum and testicles is reported. Wound patterns in genital self-mutilations are discussed. Despite serious loss of blood the reported survival periods are remarkable; death from bleeding seems to be rare. A review of similar cases shows that self-castrations as well as other self-inflicted genital mutilations are usually associated with psychiatric disorders and transsexuality or hypersexuality.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

[Open self-injury behavior].

Patients showing self-mutilation behavior are supposed to be a new group of problematic patients in psychiatric institutions. The theme is presented from an anthropological, phenomenological, nosological and etiological point of view. To understand the genesis we apply biological, behavioristic and psychoanalytical concepts. Finally, using this background therapeutic ideas are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

[Life threatening embolism caused by central venous catheter fragments in psychiatric patients].

Central venous catheters are sometimes the cause of life-threatening complications. In two patients with underlying psychiatric disorders we observed an embolism as a result of catheter fragments. The first patient was a 30-year-old woman with a borderline personality disorder and several previous episodes of self-mutilation, psychogenic seizures and disturbances of consciousness. She cut her central venous line positioned in the external jugular vein when she was unattended. The intravasal fragment dislocated into the right ventricle and had to be removed by a forceps used for myocardial biopsies. The second patients was a 34-year-old mentally retarded male with a history of psychomotoric and grand mal seizures who suffered from a prolonged disturbance of consciousness with uncontrolled motor activity after four grand mal seizures. Despite physical restraint, the tip of his central venous catheter inserted through the subclavian vein broke and embolized in the right atrium. The embolus was removed by thoracotomy. To avoid these complications central venous lines should be used only when critically needed in uncooperative patients or those who display disturbance of consciousness and uncontrolled motor activity.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Harakiri: a clinical study of deliberate self-stabbing.

BACKGROUND: Stabbing is an uncommon method of self-harm that has not been previously described in the psychiatric literature. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical features and management of patients presenting with self-inflicted stab injuries. METHOD: Case notes of all patients presenting with deliberate self-inflicted injuries during a 2-year period to a teaching general hospital were screened to identify the sample of interest. Clinical data were then collected by means of a detailed case-note study. RESULTS: Ten patients who deliberately stabbed themselves were identified. The patients fell into two distinct clinical groups: the first consisted mostly of young men with antisocial personalities who were intoxicated at the time of the self-stabbing and who reported ambivalent suicidal intent; the second consisted of psychotic patients, most of whom were actively ill at the time of the self-stabbing, and who reported clear suicidal intent. Patients in the first group were noncompliant with treatment and difficult to engage; those in the second group needed psychiatric hospitalization and often responded to antipsychotic medication. CONCLUSION: Persons who stab themselves tend to fall into two clinical groups that have different diagnoses and management. Distinctions between violent suicidal behavior and self-mutilation are blurred because suicidal intent can be difficult to assess.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

[Penitentiary medicine and the Rights of Man].

Penitentiary medicine combines preventive medicine and treatment which are for the most part carried out in renovated structures. Other than the usual illnesses, these services and their personal are confronted with specific pathologies due to stress, tobacco consumption, insomnia, inactivity, distress, but also hunger strikes and self-mutilation. One particular concern is AIDS and its formidable complications, notably tuberculosis. The important role played by psychiatry and psychotherapeutic support in penitentiary medicine cannot be emphasized enough. Not only are many of the inmates alcoholics or drugs users, many of them are also starved for communication. The Ahens statement (1987), a true codicil of Human Rights, developed by the International Council of Penitentiary Medical Services, formally prohibits doctors to practice any form of torture or experimental medical operations on inmates, and puts medical priority above and beyond any administrative or judiciary considerations. This message is applicable to all prisons, regardless of countries: Europe, the Americas, Africa, Pacific or other. As President of the Council, we have distributed this message throughout the world, to all the various United Nations Agencies, thus teaching Human Rights, including prisoners' rights, in a concrete fashion.

France↗
PubMed1993

Train suicides in Brisbane, Australia, 1980-1986.

Train suicides have not been widely studied, but this mode of suicide is one which results in high mortality and disfigurement, considerable trauma to bereaved relatives, and often considerable psychological difficulties for those indirectly involved such as train drivers and onlookers. The placement of psychiatric hospitals close to railways and the advisability of erecting barriers have sometimes been hotly debated. This survey of 23 train suicides in Brisbane, Australia, addresses these issues. It shows that 57% of the victims had been treated for schizophrenia, and 57% were also psychiatric inpatients at the time of the incident. Forty eight percent of the deaths occurred close to the regional psychiatric hospital. Fifty two percent were young adults aged 15-29 years. All suicides occurred during daylight or within 2 h of sunset. These results are similar to those from another study in the same city which implicated schizophrenia in jumping from heights--also a grossly self-mutilating behavior. The erection of barriers to reduce mortality from train suicide was not considered a feasible solution for Brisbane, but other cities might benefit from such measures.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Epidemiologic research, disorders of eating behavior and addictive behavior].

The tremendous increase in interest in eating disorders, and especially in bulimia nervosa, that has occurred since the last 1970s has resulted in a large and contradictory literature about the relationships between eating disorders and addictive disorders, especially alcohol and drug abuse. At first sight, according to the differences observed between these disorders in most of their phenomenological characteristics (age, sex, socio-cultural factors), it may seem difficult to draw a parallel between them. However, studies showed that eating behavior problems, alcohol and drug abuse nowadays shared some common features in adolescents and young people. However that may be, epidemiological studies demonstrated a high prevalence of substance abuse among patients with bulimia. In anorexia nervosa, this prevalence seemed to be lower. However, significant differences have been observed between bulimic and restricting anorexics: substance abuse occurred significantly more frequently in bulimic anorexics than in restricting anorexics and this characteristic was associated with a higher prevalence of impulsive behaviors (i.e. stealing, self-mutilation and suicide attempt), laxative or diuretic use and impairments in social relationships. These clinical features are quite similar to those observed in bulimic patients with substance abuse problems. Follow-up studies also showed that substance abuse problems in anorexia nervosa were associated with the occurrence of bulimic behaviors. On the other hand, family studies reported that a high prevalence of patients with bulimia had at least one first degree relatives with substance abuse problems or an affective disorder. In anorexia nervosa, the prevalence of substance abuse or depression among the family members seemed to be higher in bulimic anorexics than in restricting anorexics.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Six case studies depicting the deliberate self-harm syndrome.

This article comprises information on self-mutilation (and specifically on the Deliberate Self-harm Syndrome) which obtained from a study of mainly American and British literature. Included is data obtained from interviews conducted with a sample of South Africans suffering from the syndrome. Etiology was explained from both a psychological and biological perspective. The former highlighted deficiencies in coping and communication skills while the latter highlighted the compulsive and pain-killer role that endorphines play. From case studies and literature it was possible to clearly distinguish the Deliberate Self-harm Syndrome as a distinct disorder-a syndrome consisting of deliberate, repetitive and private acts of self-harm in the form of cutting, burning and banging oneself. This culminates in extreme tension release.

Adult↗