Published 8 July 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2639
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2639

Endgames

Case report

A maths student with psychiatric symptoms

Jane Morris, consultant psychiatrist

1 Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 5HF

jane.morris@nshlothian.scot.nhs.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A 19 year old maths student was referred to the early psychosis clinic. Her flatmate, a medical student, feared the patient was hallucinating, paranoid, and suicidal. She had dropped out of lectures, constantly muttered to herself, and avoided standing near windows. She felt urges to throw herself off a high building and described visions of her own body "spread eagled in a pool of blood." She vehemently refused a general practitioner’s emergency prescription of antipsychotic medication and would not attend the clinic.

Staff arranged a domiciliary assessment and were surprised when the patient let them in quite cheerfully. She had moved her wardrobe to block the window "as a safeguard." The university maths department was a tower block, and the patient had horrified herself by thinking "what if I were to jump through a window?" She managed to distract herself by reciting tables and mathematical formulae, and spent her time . . . [Full text of this article]


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Alternative Conceptualisation
michael mccreadie
bmj.com, 9 Jul 2009 [Full text]
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