Sections
DSM-IV-TR Casebook Diagnosis of "Postpartum Piety" | Follow-Up
Excerpt
Zela is a 30-year-old high-school teacher living
in Lagos, Nigeria. She is married and has five children. The birth
of her last child was complicated by hemorrhage and sepsis, and
she was still hospitalized in the gynecology ward 3 weeks after
delivery when her gynecologist requested a psychiatric consultation.
Zela was agitated and seemed to be in a daze. She said to the psychiatrist, "I
am a sinner. I have to die. My time is past. I cannot be a good
Christian again. I need to be reborn. Jesus Christ should help me.
He is not helping me." A diagnosis of Postpartum Psychosis was
made. An antipsychotic drug, chlorpromazine, was prescribed, and
Zela was soon well enough to go home.