Self-inflicted penetrating brain injuries with preserved neurological function: a case series.

BACKGROUND: Penetrating trauma to the brain is a rare mode of self-harm in individuals with depressive psychosis. It may have variable presentations ranging from intact neurological status to non-survivable damage and the subjects may be surprisingly apathetic to pain. It is even unusual for such an injury to have an excellent prognosis despite coming late to clinical attention. CASE PRESENTATIONS: We report two cases of patients with psychotic depression who attempted suicide by hammering nails into their heads. On imaging, deep penetration within the brain parenchyma was noted; however, neither case had any neurological deficit or symptoms attributable to brain trauma. CONCLUSIONS: Self-inflicted penetrating brain injuries with peculiar objects such as nails are rarely encountered in practice. They need prompt management for their removal and addressing the underlying mental health illnesses.

3-Methyl-benzo[1,2-c:5,4-c']dichromen-6(8H)-one.

The title compound, C21H14O3, crystallizes with eight independent mol-ecules (A-H) in the asymmetric unit which are arranged in four groups of two mol-ecules each (AB, CD, EF and GH). In each mol-ecule, the pyran-2-one ring is planar (r.m.s. deviations vary from 0.001 to 0.017 Å), while the pyran ring has a screw-boat conformation. In the crystal, mol-ecules stack in two columns, along the [10-1] direction, composed of mol-ecules C, B, E and G, and D, A, F and H. Mol-ecules A and F are linked via C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds. In addition, there are a number of C-H⋯π contacts present involving all of the mol-ecules. These inter-actions result in the formation of a three-dimensional network.