L’état antérieur : quelle incidence pour l’adulte, quelle incidence chez l’enfant ?

Abstract

IntroductionSearching for a previous state is a common act in all medical disciplines, it corresponds to what appears in clear in any medical or social record: the prior medical history. The history is a time marker and an indicator of a possible symptomatological evolution or the risks incurred regardless of the medical specialty concerned. When they are searched for with an indemnity purpose, they are named prior state. MethodologyThe author draws on his experience of the contradictory expertise of victims (adult or child) terrorist attacks and on the analysis of the Dintilhac mission and missions emanating from CIVI (commission d’indemnisation des victimes d’infraction) and limits the study to psychic injuries during an attack. Objectives and ResultsAn assessment requested as part of a legal process is intended to assess the sequelae attributable to a fact, a harmful event (assault, attack) and the damages resulting from it. It is then necessary to check if there was a previous state in order to determine the impact of the harmful facts on the sequelae state. Based on clinical cases, the author describes the specificities of the psychiatric and psychopathological reasoning on which the expert relies depending on whether the previous condition was revealed before the attack or whether it was aggravated or revealed by the attack. ConclusionFor the psychiatrist, there is a global analysis to be carried out on what represents the previous state in the life course of the victim, the meaning it ascribes to him, and a more specific, medical aspect, which concerns the nature of the previous state.