Heide S, Schmidt V
Institut für Rechtsmedizin der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg.
Arch Kriminol. 1998 Jul-Aug;202(1-2):50-8.
The presence of a borderline personality disorder must also be considered in forensic medicine appraisements, beside the various motivations for a self injurious behaviour and apart from other psychiatric illnesses. This personality disorder is frequently characterized by cuts and scratches made by the patients using sharp objects to inflict themselves when in situations causing great psychological distress. A case of a young female student is presented who exhibited a clear auto-destructive behaviour. Due to a tragic psychodynamic development, she committed suicide by means of carbamazepine intoxikation. In addition to the impressive morphological and traumatological injury pattern, the psychiatric case history of the female patient also showed that she had suffered from a typical borderline personality disorder.