BURN, EPILEPSY AND COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major public health problem. It is not only a health crisis of planetary scope but also a socio-economic crisis with serious consequences. Among the dramatic repercussions in our country was the condemnation of several health structures, including ours. We report the case of a young epileptic woman who suffered a thermal burn by scalding, causing her to suffer from 3rd-degree lesions.Her treatment was delayed because of the sanitary conditions preventing an excision with a skin graft, which led us to follow this patient in directed healing. Therapeutic management in the context of an epilepsy-burn association must be multidisciplinary and adequate, hence the interest of prevention based on patient education, good compliance with treatment, and correct management of the environment.

Prognosis of Pregnancy in Epileptics in Benin: A Case–Control Study

Objective The main purpose of this article is to define prognosis of pregnancies in epileptic women in Benin. Methods This was a case–control study that included 54 epileptic women who had at least one pregnancy matched to 162 controls on age, pregnancy term, and monitoring center. Information about epilepsy, treatment, pregnancy, and childbirth were collected. A logistic regression with odds ratio (OR) calculation was used to study the association. Results During pregnancy 22.22% of epileptic women experienced an increase in seizure frequency. Epileptics had more frequent miscarriages (OR: 1.84 [1.01–3.51]), more incidents during pregnancy (OR: 4.03 [1.04–15.60]), and were more often hospitalized (OR: 3.35 [1.46–7.69]) than women without epilepsy. They, more often, had premature children before 37 weeks of amenorrhea (OR: 2.10 [1.12–3.91]) and gave birth to low-birth-weight children (OR = 2.17 [1.00–4.76]). Conclusion Occurrence of a pregnancy in an epileptic woman in Benin is at risk and requires multidisciplinary monitoring by both neurologist and obstetrician to reduce complications.

Erotomania and mood disorder: A case report and literature review

IntroductionErotomania is a rare delusional disorder. De Clerambault, a French psychiatrist, was the first who advanced the concept of pure erotomania, one of the “passionate psychosis”, as a distinct disorder. However, some authors tend to consider this syndrome as related to other psychiatric disorders.ObjectivesTo describe the case of a female patient with erotomanic delusion with no remission under an antipsychotic and to review the links between erotomania and other psychiatric disorders.MethodsLiterature review and a case report.ResultsWe report the case of a 32 year-old epileptic woman, hospitalized for a delusional erotomanic disorder. Initially, the patient was treated with an antipsychotic, with partial effectiveness. In fact, it appeared that the conviction of being loved began while she was depressed. After one month of combined antipsychotic and antidepressive medication, she became euthymic and her erotomanic delusions disappeared. Major depressive disorder with psychotic symptoms was diagnosed. After reviewing the literature we found that erotomanic symptoms frequently appear secondarily in other psychiatric disorders. Several publications indicate a frequent association between erotomania and mood disorder, especially bipolar affective disorder and major depression, and describe the efficacy of antidepressant and mood stabilizers. Numerous theories may explain the link between erotomania and mood disorder: from narcissistic needs, to the capacity of empathy and emotional processing. Further studies are needed to clarify the nature of this link.ConclusionIn clinical practice, a mood disorder must systematically be searched for and treated in a patient with erotomanic delusions.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.