Somatic Delusion or Self-Mutilation in a Schizophrenic Woman: A Psychiatric Emergency Room Case Report
DAVID P. KRAFT M.D.1, and
HAROUTUN M. BABIGIAN M.D.2
1 Resident and U.S. Public Health Service Fellow in Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 260 Crittenden Blvd., Rochester, N. Y. 14620
2 Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director, Division of Preventive and Social Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 260 Crittenden Blvd., Rochester, N. Y. 14620
The authors describe a schizophrenic woman who came to a psychiatric emergency room because of pain from needles in her arms. Her history suggested that she was experiencing somatic delusions as part of her chronic schizophrenic process. Radiological studies showed actual needles in one arm due to past episodes of self-mutilation. The case illustrates the hazards involved in basing diagnostic and therapeutic assumptions on inadequate data.
