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Enema Abuse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

John L. Barton
Affiliation:
St Francis Mental Health Center, Cape Girardeau, Missouri 63701, USA
J. Michael Terry
Affiliation:
St Francis Mental Health Center, Cape Girardeau, Missouri 63701, USA
Elizabeth Spindler Barton
Affiliation:
St Francis Mental Health Center, Cape Girardeau, Missouri 63701, USA

Extract

Enema abuse is a pernicious disorder, not extensively reported in the psychiatric literature. It may occur as an isolated paraphilia, klismaphilia (Denko, 1973, 1976), or as a symptom reflecting more pervasive illness or abnormality of attitude (Engel, 1975; Greenberg-Englander and Levine, 1981). Our patient had been using enemata excessively for sixteen years and presented in a state of cachexia; she had both obsessive-compulsive and affective symptoms, both frequently found in association with anorexia nervosa (Snaith, 1981).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1982 

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