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Biomedical subjects

G Möllhoff

Publications and source records attributed to G Möllhoff.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

["Self-inflicted injuries"--psychiatric, forensic and insurance aspects (II)].

German law distinguishes between attempted suicide which is not punishable and self-mutilation which is prohibited. This article describes the historical development of self-injurious behaviour, reviews the social, juridical, and ethical assessments of the past, and examines the statistical and biological results of current research. It relates observations from forensic medicine and psychiatry to specific clinical symptoms, toxicological circumstances, and social influences (stress incurred by everyday life, war, or imprisonment). Drawing on pertinent cases, it clarifies criminal and civil jurisdiction and emphasizes the importance of self-mutilation for private insurers. Intended for insurers, forensic scientists, and psychiatrists, recommendations concern the procedures to be followed in the examination, jurisdiction, and therapy involving cases of self-inflicted injuries.

Forensic Medicine↗
PubMed1994

[Problems in expert assessment of disorders caused by imprisonment].

After the reunification of the two German states (Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic [DDR]), roughly 400,000 applications, according to the Federal Pension Act (BVG), have been filed by former members of the German armed forces to have their claims for injuries to health acknowledged by the Pension Office of the Länder (States); likewise 4000 demands for works done, according to the Concentration Camp Prisoners Act (HHG), have reached the same administration. The article gives an account of the conditions in the regional prisoner-of-war camps (1943-1956), the situation in the detention centers of the DDR (1945-1989), the physical and mental diseases in these years with lasting ill-health to the present day. The author ascertains the particular difficulties of the expert opinion in the fact that the number of the consultants, who were time and living witnesses, is steadily declining. The present paper aims at the procurement of reliable knowledge resulting from experience, to younger colleagues, to whom are now assigned the expertise.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

[Querulous patients].

Querulousnes is no uniform psychiatric phenomenon and no disease entity. Causes and occasions are of the most various types, difficult to compare between persons, often moulded by the currents of the day, inherited ways of thinking, experiences and environment. Querulants are personalities, who, after colliding with the legal system and having had their own claims dismissed, suffer from an often chief and irremediable feeling of being victim of an injustice. They cannot understand that, what is in due form valid can, when, scrutinized with the greatest sense of justice and practical common sense, impress upon someone as injustice. The submission to the unattainable, the parting from hopes, expectations and claims do not materialize. The step by step stiffening readiness for action can be confined to the lawsuit matter, it comes however about, that it extends to further spheres of life. Escalations occur in particular then, when the authorities course of action, courts of justice and opponents are felt as tyrants or mortal threat. A person deriving a meaning from his entire life or events, which he interprets for himself, makes his relations to the community and Law fragile [90]. Are presented within the framework of differential diagnostic distinctions, manifestations of querulous behaviour among abnormal personalities, neurotic disorders and schizophrenic psychoses under psychiatric aspects. Brought into sharper focus are the psychogenic psychoses, which became manifest in the USA, GUS and scandinavian countries in connection with serious querulous evolutions. Hints to decision of the supreme court and forensic psychiatric expert opinion conclude the article.

Expert Testimony↗
PubMed1993

[Nursing care insurance--facts and prognosis].

There are in the Federal Republic of Germany at present 2% of the population "needing care" (80 m/1,65 m), 450,000 citizens are getting now in-patient treatment, 1.2 m are being looked after in family circles. The public opinion dilemma (rise in the rate of old people to the total population--declining birth rate) will be in 2010 so marked, that the number of people needing care will rise to 3.5 m. 85% of these patients will be then past 65 years. At the moment social discussions of drafts regarding financial guaranty for nursing, questions of infrastructure and compassion of the welfare are partly controversial. Unanimity has been reached, that prevention, active treatment and rehabilitation must be intensified before the onset of the nursing requirements is initiated. The paper informs of the actual making-up of the people's mind. Preliminary works regarding a statutory regulation for a welfare guaranty should be settled by the end of 1992.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

[Historical, social and psychiatric aspects of the "querulous patient"].

Courts, administrative agencies and doctors are occasionally but stubbornly confronted with reproaches and viciously hostile attacks by habitual litigious grouchers and fault finders to whom court judgements or counsels are purposeful personal insults. Such querulous, opinionated persons are obstinate "bellyachers" who "stick to their guns" and imaginary legal positions to the extent of being a general nuisance. Many of them are unable to appreciate the difference between law and their entirely subjective (often perverted) sense of justice; they feel constantly wronged or even persecuted. Basing on semantics and history, the psychological, psychiatric and expert problems are exhaustively discussed, including the problems of causing public annoyance and of the risks inherent in litigious paranoia.

Consumer Behavior↗
PubMed1989

[Evaluation of suicide in legal accident insurance and private insurance].

The thesis, that suicides are chiefly understood to be terminal stage developments and indemnified through compliance with prerequisites of the insurance law norm, is critically explained with regard to the scientific-theoretical evolution. Recent interdisciplinary investigations (epidemiology, statistics, sociology, psychology, psychiatry) as well as the changing approach of a large section of the population towards suicidal behaviour (self-determination and the responsibility of the individual, human dignity, breaking away from handed down moral judgements) show that the estimation held with cogency in many quarters with respect to suicide as being a reliable symptom of a disease, cannot be maintained. This result is further supported by the record number of individuals, within the sphere of the private insurance, finding themselves in financial and political "marginal situations" (class and social problems, material safeguard for families and the like) and committing suicide after reasonably pondering their dilemma; a condition which in many aspects comes close to "balance suicide". From an insurance medical angle the relevant statutory provisions and the supreme court jurisdiction of the last years are put forward to the medical experts with the requirements derived hereunder.

Expert Testimony↗
PubMed1985

[Frontal collision in the reclining-sitting position. Medical and legal aspects].

An account is given of a head-on collision involving a sleeping female who was a front-seat passenger in a sitting-reclining position and who was not wearing a safety belt. Biomechanical, clinical and radiological findings are reported (longitudinal fracture at the L3, vertebral compressions, intervertebral disc lesions, vertebral arch lacerations and incomplete paraparesis from L2 distally. In the course of several lawsuits leading up to the Federal Supreme Court, two judgments were pronounced that outline the legal obligations of the driver towards sleeping front-seat passengers. In this case, there was a conviction on account of "neglect." A district (LG) and an appellate court (OLG) acknowledged the liability of the driver for injury to person and property damages. The fact that he had not awakened the women passenger to draw her attention to the necessity of fastening the safety belt in a sitting position and in this way giving her the opportunity to make her own responsible decision was considered as "at least contributory" towards the damages sustained in the accident. The settlements regarding the private insurance liability are also derived from these rulings.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1985

[Differences and change in insurance legal concepts in West Germany].

In the course of the past two decades the social security system has undergone various changes, which escaped the notice of many doctors; some new legal developments and the hereby resulting medical evaluations are presented, whose emphasis embraces the following main fields: statutory social insurance, social claim for compensation, legislation for the seriously disabled, private insurance, rehabilitation and assessment of reduced earning capacity.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1982

[The "Baxström Affair". An example of criticism on psychiatry in the USA (author's transl)].

UNLABELLED: Until the year 1966 the prison administration of New York, supported by relevant laws, transferred prisoners who showed symptoms of psychic disorder during execution of a sentence to the Dannemora Clinic which belonged to the prison. The treatment was carried out by house physicians (general practitioners) who were subject to special directions. J. K. Baxström initiated a lawsuit against this procedure and was finally proven right by the Supreme Court of the USA; the necessity of a thorough medical examination of facts, a hearing in front of a judge, and the approval of the transfer were confirmed to apply also to mentally ill prisoners. The sociologists Streatman and Cocozza carried out an investigation of 967 ex-convicts of the Dannemora Clinic (1966-1974). RESULT: Psychiatrists had shown an arbitrary and comtemptuous behavior in these cases. Diagnostic, therapy, and prognosis had been insufficient or mistaken in this marginal group. Further examination showed, however, that no psychiatrist had been involved in the transfer to the Dannemora Clinic either in planning, consultation, or execution of the transfer. Is so far the reproaches lack any factual grounds. The "Baxström affair", which is frequently taken up by the media, turned out to be an example of ideologically determined "criticism on psychiatry" with doubtful methods.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1982

[Legal aspects of suicide (author's transl)].

The legal and forensic aspects of suicide are explained with particular reference to penal and civil code and social welfare legislation. This includes inter alia suicide as a result of injuries sustained during an accident a well as mental diseases of various etiology and pathogenesis, all of which are given detailed attention. Special problems, such suicide in a hospital, etc. have already been dealt with in great detail in other publications, so that reference is made to them within the framework of the present article.

Attitude to Health↗