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Published on: November 21, 2013
Autocastration as a presenting sign of incipient schizophrenia
1Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0234, USA. wmyers@psych.med.ufl.edu
Abstract:
Previous case reports on autocastration have identified individuals who engaged in genital self-mutilation as being overtly psychotic, as having previously received a diagnosis of schizophrenia, or as having significant dysfunction of ego integrity, manifesting as guilt and low self-esteem. This paper describes a patient who had had no previous psychiatric symptoms or mental health treatment and for whom the act of autocastration was the first sign of incipient schizophrenia.
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