Acute paranoid disorder in a Southeast Asian refugee.
The clinical course of a 23-year-old male Vietnamese refugee who was seen for psychiatric evaluation and treatment after a self-inflicted abdominal stab wound is described. His attempted suicide was precipitated by a rejection of his romantic advances by an American woman and teasing by fellow co-workers that he was a Communist spy. Central to the development of paranoid delusions in this patient was the fact that he had been a member of the Communist forces in Cambodia and feared deportation. Emigration and acculturative stressors were seen as contributing significantly to this patient's paranoid disorder.
D000069:Acculturation; D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010259:Paranoid Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D012036:Refugees / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States; D014744:Vietnam / Q000208:ethnology