Original scientific paper
Diagnoses of Personality Disorders Between 1879 and 1929 in the Largest Croatian Psychiatric Hospital
Zvonimir Paštar
orcid.org/0000-0002-2930-090X
; Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital Zagreb, Croatia
Božo Petrov
; Clinic for Psychiatry, Clinical Hospital Mostar, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Aida Križaj
; Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital Zagreb, Croatia
Ante Bagarić
; Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital Zagreb, Croatia
Vlado Jukić
; Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Aim To study demographic characteristics, comorbidities,
and diagnoses of patients admitted for personality disorders
to Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče between 1879 and
1929.
Methods Data were collected from the archives of Vrapče
Psychiatric Hospital for a 50-year period from November
1879 to December 1929. The ratio between the number
of patients with personality disorder and the number of all
admitted patients was determined. We used 3 systems of
definitions of personality disorder: for cases before 1923,
we used Prichard’s concept of moral insanity and unpublished
definitions of one of the hospital managers at that
time; for cases after 1923, we used Schneider’s classification
of psychopathic personalities and unpublished definitions
of one of the hospital managers at that time.
Results The total number of admissions during the study
period was 18 960, 141 (0.74%) of which were for a personality
disorder. Of the admitted patients, 85.8% were men
and 59.7% were single. The average age was 29.7 ± 9.5
years. Most of them (61.7%) were sent to the hospital by
courts or police, and the median length of stay was 92
days (interquartile range, 92.0 - 127.5 days). The first patient
with a personality disorder was admitted in 1889
with a diagnosis of moral insanity. Until 1920, only 3 terms
were used for personality disorder: moral insanity, psychopathic
inferiority, and psychopathy. The term was subdivided
only after that year. Of the 141 patients admitted for
personality disorder, 34 (24.1%) were discharged with comorbid
disorders, mainly substance abuse. The most common
single comorbid diagnosis was Ganser syndrome
(prison psychosis).
Conclusion Archives of the Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital
contain reliable data about the earliest nomenclature of
personality disorders, the increase in the prevalence of personality
disorders, and further subdivision of the term personality
disorder. Nomenclature for these disorders used
at the Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital was consistent with that
used in clinical practice in other parts of the world at the
time.
Keywords
epidemiology; medical records; personality disorders; hospitals, psychiatric; systematized nomenclature of medicine; history, 19th century
Hrčak ID:
63523
URI
Publication date:
15.10.2010.
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