title: Histrionic personality disorder as pseudo-learning disability.
abstract: The case of a 20-year-old woman with a histrionic personality disorder is described. She claims to have a mild learning disability, and indeed, is receiving special college education for people with learning disabilities and has a specialist learning disability social worker, despite being of above average intelligence. Aetiologically, her persona is viewed as a psychological defence, rather than a deliberate attempt at deception. A process of 'institutionalization' appears to have occurred and compounded the problems with further regression. Psychiatrists and professionals in allied disciplines should not accept that a person has a learning disability purely because that person tells you that he or she has one.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Leicester, England.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Collacott
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004519:Education, Special; D005260:Female; D006677:Histrionic Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007326:Institutionalization; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D012043:Regression, Psychology