title: A patient who changed my practice.
abstract: The patient described in this paper expressed classical depressive delusions. However after her statements of doom she would grin and giggle. The author, as a young psychiatrist, assumed that she was not seriously depressed. Shortly afterwards the patient drowned herself. In restrospect the baby had been thrown out with the bathwater. Doctors may be too ready to assume that the patient is making it all up.
authors.affiliation: St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, UK.
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Priest
keywords: hysteria; melancholia; non-verbal behaviour; suicide