Health-related life events in patients with somatic symptom disorders: A case control study.

BACKGROUND: The positive association between adverse life events and somatoform disorders is a consistent observation. But no systematic studies have evaluated the relationship between health-related life events (HLEs) in patients with somatic symptom disorder (SSD)/somatoform disorders. AIM: To examine the nature and relationship of HLE in patients with SSD and to assess the correlates of HLE. METHODS: A total of 50 adult patients with SSD and 50 matched healthy controls from a Neuropsychiatric hospital were recruited. Sociodemographic interview, scale for assessment of somatic symptoms (SASS), Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) and a semi-structured interview schedule to gather information on HLE were used. RESULTS: Patients in the SSD group had a significantly higher number of total HLE in general (4.72 ± 2.63, 3.36 ± 1.92; p = .004), major HLE (1.48 ± 1.45, 0.68 ± 0.94; p = .006), during their lifetime in comparison to controls. Infections, trauma, non-communicable diseases and reproductive system-related diseases were the more common types of HLE in SSD group. CONCLUSION: Our findings may implicate a role of major HLE of patients and HLE of their family members in the pathophysiology of SSD.

A case of clozapine-induced skin picking behaviour.

There is some evidence consistently linking the occurrence of de novo obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with clozapine. This skin-picking disorder is also known as impulsive-compulsive disorder-unspecified which with an increasing convergence with OCD has been placed in the current Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-fifth edition by American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5), in the category of the obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. To the best of our knowledge, there is no literature relating antipsychotics like clozapine with the occurrence of skin-picking behaviour. In this article, we present a case in whom skin-picking behaviour emerged during the upward dose titration of clozapine and was successfully treated with escitalopram.

A Case of Dissociative Seizures Presented like Myoclonic Epilepsy.

Psychogenic seizures are often underdiagnosed and epilepsy is very often over-treated which leads to multiple financial, social and stigma related difficulties. The myoclonic seizure itself is a rare phenomenon and when functional movement disorder presents like myoclonus then it's extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact cause. Here, we are presenting a case who was misdiagnosed as having a myoclonic seizure disorder and treated in multiple places without any improvement which ultimately turned out to be functional movement disorder of a rare variety.