Bouffée délirante (BD) is an acute and transient psychotic disorder. It is a uniquely French psychiatric diagnostic term with a long history in France and various French speaking nations: Caribbean, e.g. Haiti, Guadeloupe, Antilles and Francophone Africa. The term BD was originally coined and described by Valentin Magnan (1835–1916), fell into relative disuse and was later revived by Henri Ey (1900–1977). Terminology
The French word bouffée is often translated as a puff or waft (as of air), but can also mean a flash, rush or surge. Chabrol translates the word délirante as "delusional". Other common dictionary definitions include less useful meanings such as "crazy" or "incoherent". A reasonable English translation of the term bouffée délirante is "delusional flash". Description
Bouffée délirante is "an acute, brief nonorganic psychosis that typically presents with a sudden onset of fully formed, thematically variable delusions and hallucinations against a background of some degree of clouding of consciousness, unstable and fluctuating affect, and spontaneous recovery with some probability of relapse." The following criteria have been suggested for a diagnosis of BD:  a) abrupt onset, b) polymorphic delusions, emotional changes, mood swings, depersonalization, derealization and/or hallucinations, c) complete remission within weeks or a few months, d) exclusion of organic causation, alcohol or drug use, e) no psychiatric antecedents with the exception of a previous episode of bouffée délirante. American academic investigators proposed the following definition in 2011: "The French concept of bouffée délirante refers to conditions with a sudden onset marked by prominent delusions with hallucinations, confusion, anxiety and affective symptoms.
More severe illness may require inpatient hospitalization and pharmacologic treatment with benzodiazepines and/or antipsychotic medication, for example: risperidone, though no clinical trials have examined the efficacy of therapy for BPD. Prognosis
It is difficult to firmly establish the prognosis of first episode BD patients with respect to progression to other psychiatric illness or relapse to another psychotic episode. This is due to the fact that high quality follow-up studies of large cohorts of BD patients are unavailable in part because of the uncommon nature of the illness and non-standardization of diagnostic methods. Investigators attempting to define the prognosis in BD have used data from similar conditions, i.e. acute transient psychotic disorder (ATPD) and brief psychotic disorder (BPD). A meta-analysis involving 11,000 patients estimated the rate of recurrent psychotic episodes in ATPD and BPD patients was 51% at 30 months compared to first episode schizophrenia patients who had an 84% recurrence rate at 36 months. As suggested by the various definitions of BD discussed above, rapid recovery and return to pre-morbid level of function is expected, though quantitative data is lacking. Society
Psychiatric illnesses comparable to the unique French BD can be seen in the cycloid psychosis of German speaking countries and the psychogenic psychosis in Scandinavia. It has been argued that acute and transient psychoses are more common in African and Afro-Caribbean populations and may be attributable to socio-cultural factors. This has led to the term "culture-bound syndrome." It must be stressed that the term BD long predates any such socio-cultural, ethnic, or regional uses.