Bouffée délirante: an examination of its current status

Abstract

SynopsisBouffée délirante is an historic and unique French diagnostic term for a short-lived psychosis. The key diagnostic features are acute, floridly psychotic symptoms with complete remission. Its use in a Paris hospital has been examined, and it appears that the term is declining in popularity. A case-controlled study indicated that the diagnosis is likely to be given to migrants on first admission. A re-diagnosis of case summaries indicated no particular correspondence of bouffée délirante to any one lCD category. However, the usefulness of having a special diagnostic term for psychosis with a good outcome is discussed.

Clinical symptoms of psychotic episodes and 25-hydroxy vitamin D serum levels in black first-generation immigrants

“…The clinical presentation of young black FGIs to Canada was very similar to that observed in black French West Indians in metropolitan France . The high frequency of ‘bouffées délirantes aiguës’ in patients born in Martinique and Guadeloupe and their specific traits of acute onset, florid psychotic symptoms and good outcome were well known in Paris when the author was a psychiatry resident there.…”

Relationship between Cycloid Psychosis and Typical Affective Psychosis

“…Johnson-Sabine et al [8] certainly found this to be true in a French psychiatric hospital, and Jacoby [pers. commun.]…”

Functional psychosis mimicking acute confusional state: Longitudinal neuropsychological assessment of an acute and transient psychotic patient

“…In France some studies have stressed its acute onset and full remission. 6 We also suspect that there are some functional psychotic patients who mimic the symptomatology of ACS, as seen in this patient. There are two explanations for this.…”