Citation

Aneja J, Jangli S, Kulhara P, Bathla M. Ind. Psychiatry J. 2017; 26(2): 239-242.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Ambala, Haryana, India.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Association of Industrial Psychiatry of India)

DOI

10.4103/ipj.ipj_46_15

PMID

30089976

PMCID

PMC6058448

Abstract

Suicide is an important cause of death worldwide, and India is not immune to this major health problem. Suicide by hanging is one of the lethal methods widely practiced. However, literature is very sparse as well as old in the context of neuropsychiatric consequences seen in those who survive such attempts. We present a case of a young boy who survived an attempted hanging and was left with neuropsychiatric sequelae in the form of retro/anterograde amnesia, aggression, lability of affect, and impaired memory and visuomotor deficits. The associated diagnostic dilemmas, namely whether to diagnose such patients with Korsakoff's psychosis, organic amnesic syndrome, or major neurocognitive syndrome, are discussed and a brief review of literature of this largely ignored area is also presented.

Language: en

Keywords

Hanging; near-hanging; neuropsychiatric; sequelae