[Transient psychogenic psychoses in servicemen]

To specify the clinical picture, criteria for differential diagnosis and for medicolegal estimation of transitory psychogenic psychoses, 26 servicemen admitted irresponsible in respect to the actions committed in a state of psychosis were examined. Responsible servicemen who committed crimes in a state of physiological affect (n-26) or at the moment of acute situational personality reactions (n-26) were examined as reference groups. It has been established that transitory psychogenic psychoses occurred in servicemen with a definite personality and mental disposition (inhibited pathocharacteristic features and phenomena of residual organic brain injury) in a chronic (from 3 to 12 months) psychotraumatizing situation of permanent ill treatment and humiliation, causing long sleep deprivation. 3 stages were distinguished in the development of psychosis: stage I (preneurotic) was partial mental disadaptation; stage II (neurotic) involved further development of the phenomena of partial disadaptation and was characterized by well-defined asthenoneurotic and depressive dysphoric syndromes and not infrequently by syndromes of autistic aggressive fantasies; stage III was complete mental disadaptation marked only by transitory psychoses. The latter stage was short-lived (commonly lasting several hours), characterized by psychotic depth and by unmarked phenomena of agitated depression and pathological interpretations. Psychogenic psychosis that occurred in the presence of the above symptoms manifested, as a rule, by a depressive raptus with severe psychomotor excitation, vital melancholy, fragmentary hyperquantivalent depressive delirium, and phenomena of deep depersonalization and derealization.