Clinical-expert Base for Evaluation of the Ability of the Base of Parental Rights by the Woman with Bipolar Affective Disorder

Abstract

This is a description of an expert assessment of clinical psychological case study of a young woman, who has been repeatedly hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, in relation to her potential in terms of her parental fitness and determination of the child's residence after the parents' divorce. Materials described in the publication of detailed clinical and psychological assessment does not confirm the diagnosis paranoid schizophrenia. The woman suffers from bipolar disorder, currently in remission during the complex certification, that does not distort her primary psychological suitabilities and does not deprives her of the right to take an appropriate care of her child. We present clinical and expert criteria that have become the basis of the change of the earlier diagnosis and determine her parental fitness. These criteria are as follows: a case history data pointing the presence of episodes of bipolar affective disorder; inadequate qualification of diagnosis, which is not based on the criteria of the International Classification of Diseases – 10th revision; errors in the tactics of the predetermined diagnosis paranoid schizophrenia instead a working diagnosis: acute polymorphic psychotic disorder with symptoms of schizophrenia, that requires further dynamic monitoring; the lack of adequate assessment described in medical records of spontaneous remission, which is not typical for the schizophrenia spectrum, given the failure of establishing appropriate psychopharmacological therapy; the subsequent hospitalizations held in psychiatric ward of residence, during which symptoms confirming the diagnosis were not recorded; the multiplicated diagnosis which was originally made at University Clinic and has been confirmed in a psychiatric ward. The clinical status during the expert examination, the clinical and psychological research, the critical analysis of data of clinical history and convincing arguments to the last diagnosis and their exposure lies in the expert's report and the subsequent judgment in favor of the parental fitness of the young mother. Described by the authors as a case example of error in clinical expertise, which should be studied by students and professionals favoring the prevention of such errors in the future.