title: Valuation of the psychiatric damage. Considerations about two clinical cases.
abstract: We report a description of two mothers who scrupulously followed clinical controls and tests advised during pregnancy within a hospital environment, and who then gave birth to babies with serious deformation pathologies. In both cases, the seriousness of the psychiatric damage, is obviously useful for the medico-legal assessments. We have studied in both cases their mental make-up, understood as stable relationships between parts of the mind (thought, language, perception...). We have observed that in a fragile make-up a non significant event in many ways can cause an extremely violent reaction, whilst on the contrary, a serious event in "solid" people may not cause damaging consequences. The assessment of the mental make-up, conditions the degree of psychiatric damage, which is useful to the medical examiner, and is of fundamental importance for the individual choice of a therapeutic process.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Psichiatria, Università Cattolica del S. Cuore, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Pàstina
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Curci
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Saraceni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001921:Brain / Q000002:abnormalities; D002585:Cesarean Section; D002887:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18 / Q000235:genetics; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology; D007558:Italy; D007883:Legislation, Medical; D009006:Monosomy / Q000235:genetics; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011644:Puerperal Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology*; D014149:Tranquilizing Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D014149:Tranquilizing Agents