Psychosis In A Blindness Patient: A Case Report

Abstract

Introduction

Using a clinical case as illustration, the present work engages the different psychopathologic alterations that blindness patients could present.

Methods

The presentation and discussion of a clinical case of psychosis in a blind patient are addressed. The scientific documentation used as support was obtained from PubMed/Medline search engines using as keywords blindness and psychosis.

Results

A 43-years-old male patient, with a medical history of arterial hypertension, heroine dependence (presently with methadone schema) and bilateral blindness caused by a bilateral retinal detachment 20 years ago, was admitted in the psychiatric ward. The patient's historical record includes a previous personality with paranoid characteristics, as well as a hospitalization due to persecutory and auto-reference ideas and kinaesthetic hallucinations with 1 month of evolution, coincident with address changes. Lab tests revealed the following results: haemoglobin 13.8; Leucocytosis 13,400; CRP: 6.2; ALT > AST. Positive results were obtained in the drug tests for cannabinoids, as well as for the anti-HCV antibody (IgG). Finally, the patient was medicated with an antipsychotic and humour stabilizer, achieving a significant improvement after 10 days of hospitalization.

Conclusions

Although studies reveal that mental and behavioural disorders, especially those with symptoms of psychosis and mental retardation, are common among people with congenital blindness, more knowledge of the prevalence and aetiology of mental and behavioural disorders among people suffering from blindness is needed.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.