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Prepartum Psychosis and Neonaticide: Rare Case Study and Forensic‐Psychiatric Synthesis of Literature
Author(s) -
Karakasi MariaValeria,
Markopoulou Maria,
Tentes Ioannis K.,
Tsikouras Panagiotis N.,
Vasilikos Epameidas,
Pavlidis Pavlos
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.13365
Subject(s) - psychiatry , psychosis , postpartum psychosis , medicine , forensic psychiatry , mood disorders , psychology , mood , bipolar disorder , anxiety
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.