30 October 2023 , 18:30
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A man pierced his scrotum with two nails whilst ‘under the command of an imaginary person’, medics have revealed in a new journal.
Doctors in Tunisia say one nail measured 6cm and pierced in two separate places with another fragment lodged in a joint between his pelvic bones. Despite the grisly injuries, staff at La Rabta Hospital say the unnamed 23-year-old made a remarkable recovery and escaped without any lasting damage to his testicles.
They gave him a tetanus jab to defend against bacteria and removed the nails and dead skin tissue. He was discharged after just one day and referred to psychiatrists who confirmed he had serious mental health issues and prescribed antipsychotics to target the symptoms of schizophrenia.
Experts writing in the medical journal Urology Case Records explained: “Schizophrenic patients usually insert an object in the mouth or rectum, but insertion of foreign body in the scrotum is not reported in our knowledge. In our case the patient was suffering from schizophrenia, and under the command of an imaginary person, he would put objects into his scrotum.”
Experts said the patient had waited two days before going to the hospital and added: “Presentation is usually delayed due to feelings of shame and embarrassment. When they occur, they can result in serious complications such as testicular tissue loss or urethral strictures. Scrotal foreign bodies are rare in daily practice, especially in adolescents with no evident history of mental illness. Nevertheless, psychiatric evaluation is mandatory to detect an underlying mental disorder and to avoid repeat auto-insertion.”
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Schizophrenia can cause a range of different psychological symptoms. Doctors describe the condition as a form of psychosis because patients cannot always distinguish between reality and their internal thoughts. As well as delusions, sufferers may hallucinate and have muddled speech.
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