Introduction

DSM-V includes near-psychotic symptoms as new criteria in borderline personality disorder (BPD). This change makes more difficult the differential diagnosis between considering psychotic symptoms as part of the BPD or as part of a comorbid psychotic disorder.

Objectives

Recognize the difficulty of the differential diagnosis in clinical practice between BPD and comorbid diagnosis of BPD with psychotic disorders, and how it can affect the patient’s outcome.

Methods

Patients’ data is obtained from medical history and psychiatric interviews carried out during their hospitalizations.

Results

32 year-old female patient with previous diagnosis of BPD, psychotic episodes and cannabis abuse, was admitted due to paranoid ideation and aggressiveness, with massive borderline defense mechanisms (frequent displays of anger, high impulsivity, low frustration tolerance, self-destructive behavior…). Psychotic symptoms ceased two weeks after admission, and considering the patient’s individual characteristic it was believed BPD fitted more with this clinical case, although different psychotic disorders were considered.

30 year-old female patient began intensive psychiatric treatment with previous diagnosis of BPD, psychotic disorder and cannabis abuse. It was observed that the paranoid ideation and bodily experiences she suffered lasted months and were characterized by a strong belief. These two reasons were put into consideration when it was decided to judge this clinical case as a comorbid diagnosis of BPD with a psychotic disorder.

Conclusions

It is necessary to assess the difficulty of the differential diagnosis in these patients, and offer them specialized treatment depending on the diagnosis, as it can affect the patient’s outcome.

Introduction

Chronic pain has an impact that goes beyond the physical plane and, over the years, it ends up deteriorating the emotional, working and social life of people who suffer it.

Objectives

Since we are working with patients who suffer a chronic pathology that cannot be cured, the objective of the group is to create a safe space in which these patients can feel understood, facilitating emotional expression and promoting an active attitude. Accepting pain and its limitations allows the person to regain their ordinary life.

Methods

A multicomponent group therapy with a cognitive-behavioural orientation was carried out. The group was formed by 12 patients, all of them women with chronic pain. Eleven sessions were established on a weekly basis of one and a half hours of duration.

Results

In each session a specific aspect was worked on, favouring the learning of techniques, tools and strategies of coping. A global approach was made, including behavioural, cognitive and emotional elements. At the end of the process, the patients reported benefits in their ability to manage anxiety and depression symptomatology, and they reflected a lower impact of pain in their daily life.

Conclusions

Given the complexity of the symptomatology in chronic pain, it is important to approach the treatment from a multidimensional perspective that envisages every component of pain in order to being able to give a response to the physical and psychosocial impact that it implies, favouring a better confrontation and adaptation.

Introduction

Paraphrenia is a classic diagnostic entity characterized by an insidious development of a vivid and exuberant delusional system, more or less systematized, hallucinations and confabulations.

Objectives

Increase knowledge about paraphrenia, a classic diagnosis that no longer appears on international classifications.

Methods

Extensive research on the historical path of the paraphrenia diagnostic entity was carried out. Patient’s data is obtained from medical history and psychiatric interviews done during her hospitalizations.

Results

68 year-old patient attended the hospital emergency service due to a demonic possession delusion that emerged when she was 44 year-old, when she first consulted a psychiatrist because she believed someone introduced the demon inside her body. She described kinesthetic hallucinations as “movements of her brain” and an intense headache, both originated by the demon; as well as other types of hallucinations and confabulations. However, there was no deterioration in her personaliy or her intellectual capacity, as it could have been seen in a case of schizophrenia.

This clinical case is considered a paraphrenia phantastica as it presents the typical features raised by the classic authors (mainly Henry Ey): paralogical thought dominance, megalomania, confabulation and integrity of relation with reality.

Conclusions

Current internacional classifications do not consider paraphrenia as a differentiated diagnostic entity, as it also occurs with other classical entities. This causes a loss of important tools that would achieve a better approach to the patient's condition.

Introduction

Paraphrenia is a psychotic disorder characterized by an insidious development of a vivid and exuberant delusional system, accompanied by hallucinations and confabulations, without a personality deterioration. It is considered to be an intermediate entity between the disorganization of schizophrenia and the systematization of a delusional disorder.

Objectives

Develop knowledge about paraphrenia as an individualized diagnostic entity and its historical path through the classical authors' texts.

Methods

Extensive research on the historical path of the paraphrenia diagnostic entity was carried out, as well as the current situation of the term.

Results

In the German psychiatry it was Karl Kahlbaum who first introduced the term of paraphrenia. Later many authors of the German psychiatry delved into this diagnostic entity. Emil Kraepelin described four different subtypes of paraphrenia: paraphrenia systematica, expansiva, confabulans and phantastica. However, other authors such as Kleist or Bleuler, considered paraphrenia should not be judge as an individualized diagnostic entity as it should be considered inside schizophrenia, so the term disappeared in the German psychiatry.

In the French psychiatry, unlike the German, the independence of chronic psychosis from schizophrenias was recognized, so the term had a longer path. Henry Ey recognized four important clinical features in this disorder: paralogical thought dominance, megalomania, confabulation and integrity of relation with reality.

Conclusions

Currently the term paraphrenia is no longer considered an individualized diagnostic entity. In fact, in today's textbooks of psychiatry paraphrenia is considered a psychotic disorder that has nothing in common with the one described by the classical authors, and it is part of the late-onset psychosis.