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Oxford University Press, Oxford Medical Case Reports, 3(2014), p. 52-54

DOI: 10.1093/omcr/omu022

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Pregnancy delusion hinders the diagnosis of achalasia in a patient with life-threatening emaciation

Journal article published in 2014 by Rafael Dias Lopes, Claudio E. M. Banzato, Amilton Santos ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Abnormal eating behaviour among psychiatric patients is associated with several psychiatric conditions, but may also be caused by a comorbid physical condition. Clinical assessment of a psychiatric patient is often challenging, which contributes to an increased rate of undiagnosed medical conditions and an increased mortality rate. We present the clinical case of a 46-year-old woman with a long-term delusion of triplet pregnancy, and recurrent vomiting. She experienced intense weight loss and eventually faced a life-threatening situation due to achalasia, which was incidentally discovered on a chest X-ray during her second psychiatric hospitalization, after several other tests, including upper digestive endoscopy, returned normal results. After a successful laparoscopic Heller's myotomy, her digestive symptoms greatly improved. This report illustrates the difficulty of establishing clinical-surgical diagnoses in psychotic patients, as some delusions seem to explain clinical complaints, masking and delaying the diagnosis of comorbid conditions.