Background:While it is well known that patients with psychiatric illness feel stigmatized, little is known about the reactions to a psychiatric referral among those who visit general hospital medical and surgical services for their complaints.Materials and Methods:This study assessed the sociodemographic details, psychiatric diagnosis, somatic symptom severity, and interview-based reactions to referral among patients referred to psychiatry services from other departments in a general tertiary hospital in North India. Fifty-nine males and 101 females were assessed over 6 months for this purpose.Results:A majority of patients were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder and had significant somatic symptom severity. The themes explored were the decision to accept the referral, possibility of the presence of mental illness as signified by a psychiatric diagnosis and factors that enabled or impeded psychiatric treatment seeking.Conclusions:Results indicate that patients did not empower in decision-making, a reluctance to accept the possibility of a psychiatric diagnosis and accept medication and had poor knowledge about psychiatry. Referring clinicians and psychiatrists should be sensitive to patient perceptions so that better care is possible.
Fahr's syndrome is relatively rare neuropsychiatric disease characterized by bilateral symmetrical basal ganglia intracranial calcification. This disease has varied neuro psychiatric manifestation ranging from neurological, cognitive, and psychiatric manifestations. Here we are representing two cases. In the first case, a 24-year-old male with Fahr's disease (FD), presenting with schizophrenia like psychosis which was not responding to medication, his neurological examination was normal and CT scan of brain revealed symmetrical large areas and foci of calcification in bilateral basal ganglia. Another case was a 70 year old lady presenting with gradual onset of dementia like features, there were no apparent neurological deficit and CT scan brain revealed bilateral basal ganglia calcification. Both the cases on screening did not reveal any evidence in the other family members. Farh's disease (FD) has pronounced positive brain imaging findings along with neuro psychiatric manifestations. We reported sporadic cases of FDs with its neuropsychology and radiological findings.
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