bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Investigation into Children in an Attempt to Differentiate Between Mental Defect and Deafness
Authors: Dawson M. E. , Evans M. J. , Reed M. , Minski Louis
Published: August 2008

Through the generosity of the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board a research unit for the study of apparently deaf children with defective speech was set up in Belmont Hospital in March, 1953. The primary object of the unit is to attempt to assess by methods which will be discussed later whether children who have acquired no speech are in fact only deaf or whether they are mentally defective, emotionally disturbed, or are suffering from these or other conditions. It is an undoubted fact that some children who have never spoken and who are therefore inaccessible and who may be asocial or antisocial in their behaviour are diagnosed as being mentally defective and spend their lives in mental defective institutions. It has however already been shown in our unit that a number of these children when under observation for a period of time prove to be deaf and probably educable. If facilities were available to continue their education under specialized conditions they could no doubt make useful citizens within their limitations. Before discussing the problems associated with these children in more detail it might be as well to describe the personnel and layout of the unit.
Prognosis in Psychiatric Disorders of the Elderly an Attempt to Define Indicators of Early Death and Early Recovery
Authors: Kay D. W. K. , Norris Vera , Post Felix
Published: August 2008

Prognosis, the prediction of the outcome of an illness, has long been recognized as a necessary skill of a physician. Hippocrates (translated Chadwick and Mann, 1950) said:

“It seems highly desirable that a physician should pay much attention to prognosis. If he is able to tell his patients when he visits them not only about their past and present symptoms, but also to tell them what is going to happen, as well as to fill in the details they have omitted, he will increase his reputation as a medical practitioner … It is impossible to cure all patients: that would be an achievement surpassing in difficulty even the forecasting of future developments … By realizing and announcing beforehand which patients were going to die he would absolve himself from any blame.”

In addition to the reasons given by our distinguished forebear we now also require to read into the future so that we can make the best use of the limited facilities available for the sick. This is particularly true for elderly psychiatric patients for whom treatment facilities are still very inadequate. It has been suggested (Cook, Dax and Maclay, 1952) that mentally ill elderly people should by preference be admitted to short-stay units attached to general hospitals for the assessment of prognosis and probable response to treatment. They suggested that a 3-4-months stay might be necessary. Experience in a diagnostic outpatient clinic (Norris and Post, 1954) led one of us (F.P.) to believe that it should be possible to classify patients according to the best method of dealing with them in a shorter time even than the six weeks recommended by the B.M.A. Report (1947). The present study was designed to test this belief. Our hopes were only partly fulfilled, but a post hoc analysis of our original data, in conjunction with the known results of the follow-up of cases, has suggested that with more knowledge of the factors influencing prognosis over a short term, much more accurate forecasts could have been achieved. The second half of this paper is devoted to a discussion of these factors. A preliminary report was given at the Third International Congress of Gerontology (Kay et al., 1954).
Chlorpromazine in the Treatment of the Chronic Disturbed Schizophrenic Patient
Authors: Mitchell P. H.
Published: August 2008

The pharmacology of chlorpromazine (Anton-Stephens, 1954; Hopkin, 1955) and its use in psychiatric practice (Garmany et al., 1954; Elkes et al., 1954; Charatan, 1954; Labhardt, 1954) have been described in several recent papers. The present paper briefly describes a controlled experiment on the use of the drug in a group of chronic disturbed schizophrenic patients, the object being to introduce as few variables as possible into the experimental situation, with a view to making the results as objective as is ever possible in a psychiatric investigation.
Intensive Cortisone Therapy in Schizophrenia
Authors: Rees Linford , King G. M.
Published: August 2008

Cortisone therapy has been claimed to produce favourable results in clinical schizophrenics (Cohn and Karnosh, 1951; Cohn et al., 1953). Rees and King (1952) carried out a controlled investigation on the effects of Cortisone given in moderate doses over a four-day period to a group of schizophrenic patients and found no significant changes in symptomatology, behaviour or in a series of psychological and physiological tests.

In a personal communication Dr. Cohn suggested that Cortisone given in higher doses over a longer period would probably be therapeutically more effective in chronic schizophrenia.

The present paper describes a controlled investigation into the therapeutic effects of Cortisone given in high dosage over a relatively prolonged period.
Photic Stimulation, Imagery, and Alpha Rhythm
Authors: Blum Richard H.
Published: August 2008

Photic stimulation, the exposure of the human eye to repetitive flashes of light, has been employed in recent years in three ways; as a diagnostic, as a therapeutic, and as a research method. In each case, its use has opened new frontiers of inquiry into the borderlands of neurology and psychology.

This paper presents certain observations which stem from the testing of exploratory hypotheses with regard to an expected relationship between photic stimulation and imagery, alpha rhythm, critical flicker frequency (CFF), personality test data, overt reactions, and after-images in three major diagnostic groups: schizophrenics, organic brain damage (paretics and others), and normal individuals (no history of brain damage or emotional disorder).

Since this is a report of exploratory work, no attempt has been made to apply rigorous statistical tests nor to arrive at final conclusions. The aim is rather to stimulate further research which may employ more adequate instruments, larger groups, or different conceptual schemes.
Metabolic Variations in Manic-Depressive Psychosis
Authors: Dawson J. , Hullin R. P. , Crocket Beatrice M.
Published: August 2008

In previous investigations of changes observed in the blood levels of acetylmethylcarbinol and butane-2: 3-diol in patients with manic-depressive psychosis (Dawsonet al., 1954), the blood levels of a large number of patients in one mood phase were compared with the levels in another group of patients in a different mood phase. This procedure showed that the differences between the various mood phases were statistically significant. A lack of correlation in time between the chemical changes and the alteration in mood might account for the limited degree of correlation obtained. Thus, if the chemical change preceded the mood change, some of the data would not correspond with the observed mood state during which the blood sample was taken.

Another uncontrolled factor in the previous investigation was the diet; whilst all the blood samples were taken after a 12 hour fast, there was a large difference in the previous dietary history of the patients due to their mental state. Again, only blood levels were investigated and these might have been considerably affected by alterations in kidney activity.

For all these reasons, a different approach to the problem was made, and a small number of patients has been studied closely through a series of mood changes so as to enable us to determine the time relationship, if any, between the change in mental state and the chemical change. The patients were segregated into a small ward where their food intake was determined and 24-hour urine collections made; whilst in the unit, patients were maintained without sedation and without electroconvulsant therapy.

On the basis of the previous work, it was concluded that the variations observed in the blood levels of acetylmethylcarbinol and butane-2: 3-diol did not, in themselves, determine a change in mood but were indicators of some other, more fundamental alteration in the metabolic state of the subject. Consequently, changes in extracellular fluid volume as estimated by determinations of the thiocyanate space, were also investigated with these patients. Estimations of urinary constituents were also made to determine the effect of the kidneys in influencing blood levels.
Intravenous Acetylcholine Therapy in Neurosis
Authors: Hawkings J. R. , Tibbetts R. W.
Published: August 2008

It is now several years since acetylcholine was first administered intramuscularly in the symptomatic treatment of anxiety, on the theory that anxiety was sympathicotonic in nature and could be counteracted by the vagotonic action of acetylcholine. Unfortunately decomposition of acetylcholine is so rapid that there is little time for this action to be effective, and the majority of investigators believe that it has no effect, or at least a momentary one, when given either subcutaneously or intramuscularly. Maxwell Jones (1936) used carbachol, a drug with a similar but more prolonged action than acetylcholine to treat six patients with anxiety neurosis. He was able to report relief from the psychic and somatic symptoms of anxiety in all cases but unfortunately, following withdrawal of the drug, they tended to relapse. An entirely different rationale led Tomasson (1936) to claim both alleviation and shortening of the duration of attacks of mania in manic depressive psychotics using a combined ephedrine and acetylcholine treatment.
The Contribution of the Physical Sciences to Psychological Medicine
Authors: Dunne John
Published: August 2008

The honour which the R.M.P.A. has bestowed on me fills me with a mixture of pride and apprehension; pride that I occupy the Chair where have sat so many distinguished psychiatrists and apprehension lest I might be unequal to the task of upholding the noble traditions of my predecessors. In offering you my thanks and appreciation I wish to express my most devout hope that I will prove worthy of the mantle you have placed on my shoulders and pass it on to my successors untarnished. It is pleasant to think that the Irish Division of the R.M.P.A. has held such a long and happy relationship with its Royal parent and that in the field of psychological medicine there has been no cleavage between the Sassenach and the Gael. I am proud to be the figurehead which expresses that unity today.
The Thirtieth Maudsley Lecture: Perception and Imperception
Authors: Brain W. Russell
Published: August 2008

I value very much the honour of giving the Maudsley Lecture. Henry Maudsley was a pioneer in the study of the physiological basis of mind, and hence of the physiological interpretation of mental disorder. In the preface to his book, The Physiology of Mind (Maudsley, 1876), he said with a blend of optimism and modesty: “The current of psychological thought having set so strongly in physiological channels, it is pretty certain that the reflections which one person has had, however original they may seem to him, some other person has had, has now, or will very soon have.” But half a century was to pass before physiology and psychiatry began to develop techniques which could illuminate the physiological basis of mind, and even now we are only entering the era which Maudsley would have found the fulfilment of his hopes and anticipations. Though intolerant of the idea that metaphysical speculation about mind could take the place of scientific study, he was nevertheless a philosopher, and my aim in this lecture is to try to use a philosophy of perception to interpret the clinical observations of perceptual disorder.
“Memory Function” in Psychiatric Patients Over Sixty, Some Methodological and Diagnostic Implications
Authors: Shapiro M. B. , Post F. , Löfving B. , Inglis J.
Published: August 2008

The aim of the research of which this study forms part, is to examine the relationship of certain aspects of mental functioning to the psychiatric illnesses of old age.

One of the apparent deficits of function to which psychiatrists commonly attach importance is “memory impairment“. This is considered part of various clinical syndromes, especially of the “organic” disorders of senility. The assessment of memory is, therefore, of considerable practical importance and most psychiatrists working with elderly patients use some kind of “memory tests”. Such tests are usually unstandardized and lack objective scoring criteria.

There are, in relation to memory assessment, some points of conflict between clinical usage and the evidence of objective psychological investigations. For example, the existence of a “memory function” which could be considered as relatively independent of general mental functioning or intelligence, has not been well substantiated when some such clinical tests have been put to critical examination. Eysenck and Halstead (2) after a brief review of the literature and an experimental attack on this problem, conclude that “… the ability involved in the clinical tests of memory studied in this research was identical with that involved in the intelligence test used, and that, therefore, it was misleading to accept scores on these various tests as estimates of a person's ‘memory’ ability.”
Clinical Applications of EEG in Psychiatry
Authors: Hill Denis
Published: August 2008

The speakers for this morning's discussion were asked to be practical, to limit themselves to giving an account of the essential uses of the EEG technique for clinical psychiatry, and to avoid, as far as possible, the theoretical and speculative aspects of the subject. No doubt the time has come for an attempt at re-appraisal. In the last 10 years EEG departments have been developed in most of the larger mental hospitals and nearly every psychiatric centre or group, be it mental hospital, out-patient department or child guidance clinic has access to an EEG department and refers patients for examination in increasing numbers.
Encephalitis Periaxialis Diffusa with Survival for Thirty-Six Years
Authors: Stewart R. M.
Published: August 2008

In 1928 Symonds (1928) recorded a case of Schilder's encephalitis, the disease being remarkable for its familial incidence and the presence of a progressive double hemiplegia. Since this date other writers have fully confirmed his observations.

Familial forms of Schilder's Encephalitis have been described by Ferraro (1928) and Van Bogaert and Nyssen (1936) while Bouman (1934) has emphasized that in children quadriplegia is the usual clinical finding.

The present report deals with the clinical and pathological findings in a girl who was the second of thirteen children in the family studied by Symonds. Clinically, the case was remarkable for the very long period of survival and pathologically, by reason of the extensive degree of spinal cord degeneration with but little evidence of sclerosis in the cerebral hemispheres.
Colour-Form Response as a Function of Mental Disorder
Authors: Keehn J. D. , Sabbagh Aimee
Published: August 2008

Although Külpe (14) used only three subjects in his original experiment on tachistoscopic memory in 1904 his classification of them into colour, form and intermediate types has initiated a substantial amount of psychological research all over the world. Thus investigations into both normal and abnormal personality correlates of reaction to colour and form have been carried out in France (8), Poland (1), Italy (5), (18), Japan (17), Britain (6), (9), (16), America (4), (23), Sweden (2), (15), and Germany (20), (21) to quote but a representative sample.
The use of Vocabulary in the Measurement of Intellectual Deterioration—A Review
Authors: Yates Aubrey J.
Published: August 2008

The problem of determining whether or not a particular individual has deteriorated intellectually or with respect to other skills is one which has exercised the ingenuity of clinical psychologists for a long time. Clearly the most satisfactory method from the point of view of reliability and validity is by means of the test-retest method over a given period of time, using tests for which adequate statistical information is available. However, since a direct estimate of the individual's previous level of intelligence is usually not available and since the psychologist often cannot wait six months or longer to obtain a direct retest, some method had to be devised which would overcome this difficulty. Babcock (1930) hit on the method of using the Vocabulary test as an estimate of previous level of intellectual ability and contrasting it with performance on other tests supposedly sensitive to deterioration in order to measure the amount of decline which had taken place.

Some aspects of the use of vocabulary in clinical psychological testing have been reviewed by a number of writers (Cronbach, 1942; Feifel, 1949; Hunt, 1936; Jastak, 1949; Lewinski, 1948; Raven and Walshaw, 1944; Shakow, 1946), and the immense interest shown in vocabulary as a test may be inferred from the 101-page bibliography of vocabulary studies published by Dale (1949). However, previous reviews suffer from two defects in that(a)they do not attempt to cover the ground thoroughly or systematically, being usually introductory to an experiment, or not specifically concerned with the subject matter of this paper; and(b)they naturally give no information about the important research which has taken place in this field within the last few years. The present review has been undertaken for these reasons, and because of the intrinsic importance of the problem.
Mental Maladjustment in the East African
Authors: Smartt C. G. F.
Published: August 2008

Relatively little is yet known of the incidence or nature of mental disorder in Africans. The literature on African psychiatry is not extensive and, although a wealth of anthropological and sociological work has given us an idea of the cultural and physical background of the African, we are still much in the dark as to how these factors influence his personality and what bearing they may have upon mental illness. A number of studies of patients in African Mental Hospitals have been made by various writers and diagnostic classifications have been attempted. Most writers agree that it is rare to find any great degree of similarity between the various types of mental disorder in Africa and those found in the higher developed western countries. Most of the work in this field has been summarized by Carothers (1954).

My aim in this paper is to give a rough idea of the African background, to speculate on various aspects of the African personality in the light of present knowledge, and to try and reflect these speculations by description of the various types of insanity that are encountered in a mental hospital in Tanganyika. Some of the differences in the nature and aetiology of these disorders, compared with those most common in the home country, will be discussed. My remarks are, of course, confined to Tanganyika and if I inadvertently use the term “the African” I refer to the native of Tanganyika whom I have studied for the past eight years and who compose the bulk of the patients in hospital.
Perception of the Upright in Relation to Body Image
Authors: Bennett D. H.
Published: August 2008

The Concept of the Body Image and the Perception of the Human Body

The consideration of our awareness of our own bodies ceased to be wholly a philosophical problem when Pick (1908) and Head and Holmes (1911), having observed neurological disturbances of body awareness, first suggested the concept of a Body Image or Body Schema. The concept, has in its slow growth, become at times confused and has always resisted satisfactory definition. Pick himself made no attempt to define it, while for Head and Holmes it was a “postural model of the body” being constantly built up and changed by every new posture and movement and forming a “plastic schema” which was “the fundamental standard against which all postural changes are measured“. Schilder (1935) greatly enriched the concept by emphasizing not only its physiological and neuropathological basis but its psychological aspect. He defined it thus: “The image of the human body means the picture of our own body which we form in our mind, that is to say the way in which the body appears to ourselves.” This was a comprehensive “body image”; more than a perception or mere representation and including even Head and Holmes's “Body Schema“. The Body Schema concept has been more recently defined by Clifford Scott (1948) as “that conscious or unconscious integration of sensations, perceptions, conceptions, affects, memories or images of the body from the surface to its depths and from its surfaces to the limits of space and time”.
The use of Reserpine in Chronic Psychotic Patients: A Controlled Trial
Authors: Wing Lorna
Published: August 2008

Reserpine is one of the active alkaloids extracted from the root of the plant Rauwolfia Serpentina. The physiological changes resulting from the use of the drug in animals—such as hypotension, bradycardia, sedation, increased peristalsis, meiosis, etc.—are probably the result of a central action. The precise sites are not known although it seems likely that one of them is the midbrain reticular formation. There is no evidence of any peripheral action, nor of any direct effect on the cortex. The reason for the long latent period, before the drug begins to show an action is still obscure (Lancet Leader, 1955; Mover, 1955; Plummer et al., 1954). The recent work on the pharmacological relationships between Reserpine, Serotonin and the hallucinogens suggests interesting possibilities (Pletscher et al., 1955; Shore et al., 1955).

There is already a considerable literature on the toxic effects of Reserpine, the most serious of which are Parkinsonism, of a post-encephalitic type, and severe depression (Achor et al., 1955; Barsa and Kline, in press; Locket, 1955; Schroeder and Perry, 1955; Stead and Wing, 1955).
Asthma: A Synthesis Involving Primitive Speech, Organism and Insecurity
Authors: Bostock John
Published: August 2008

Historical Background

Asthma is an illness which has puzzled our profession since earliest times. Each generation has based its concept of aetiology on current concepts of disease, so that delving into its history shows a colourful pattern of widely conflicting views.

Early in this century Osler (1910) is in favour of a nervous cause, though he pays little attention to treatment on psychological lines. After that date there is a procession of changing viewpoints.

In the second decade, anaphylactics, according to Conner (1917), have cracked the hard core of the aetiological riddle, but Eppinger and Hess (1917), writing of vagotonia, correlate this with the asthmatic attack.

Freeman (1921) writes of precipitating nervous reflexes. Bray (1934) is convinced that the allergist holds the key to solution. There is emphasis on allergic diathesis and an hereditary asthmatic constitution.

Wittkower (1935) showed that asthma might have a purely psychological conditioning. Since that time, belief in the importance of the psychological factor is still gaining ground.

The theme of the present communication arose from research of Bostock and Shackleton (1951, 1952) on the aetiology of enuresis. There emerged the concept of premature toilet training interfering with later development of urinary control. It suggested that a study of asthma in its early stages might show an interference in the normal process of respiratory and speech maturation.

As will be shown, there is a similarity, although the mechanism is more complicated.
Modification of Insulin Resistance
Authors: Marley Edward
Published: August 2008

Sakel (1938a) drew attention to the difficulty of establishing satisfactory comas in a minority of patients attending for Deep Insulin therapy. This phenomenon has since been confirmed by other workers including Tillim (1938) whose patient received 500 units of insulin without the production of deep coma, by Hall (1940) who reported an instance in which 1,000 units of insulin was equally unsuccessful, by Reznikoff and Scott (1942) who described how neither 120 nor 1,000 units of insulin when injected intravenously produced any significant difference in hypoglycaemia in insulin resistant patients, and more recently by Fogarty (1953) whose case required 5,000 units of insulin for the production even of sopor. Other recorded examples of resistance to massive doses of insulin include those of Bantinget al.(1938) and Tennent (1944).

Various explanations of this perverse response to insulin have been formulated, including that of Jones (1939) who proposed that resistance to insulin was both a problem of true insulin insensitivity and also of an anomalous response of the central nervous system to hypoglycaemia. Medunaet al.(1942) preferred to ascribe it to anti-insulin factors in the blood, but a more interesting interpretation derived from Freudenberg (1952) who suggested that if the effects of high insulin dosage employed in insulin coma treatment were regarded as a special instance of a stress response, then the fluctuations and differences in response could be equated in terms of the General Adaptation Syndrome of Selye. High doses were thus an index of an effective “alarm stage” characterized by a discharge from plentiful adrenocortical reserves.
Mental Changes as a Presenting Feature in Subcortical Cerebral Lesions
Authors: Whitty C. W. M.
Published: August 2008

Lesions of the cerebral cortex are generally accepted as a potential source of psychological change, and the difficulties that may arise in distinguishing between one of the psychiatric illnesses at present regarded as idiopathic and one due to a lesion of the prefrontal cortex, the temporal lobe or the posterior parietal region are well recognized. Since there is normally a continual functional interplay between cortex and subcortical structures, lesions in the latter may also be expected at times to produce changes in psychological function.
Out-Patient Psychotherapy Under the National Health Service
Authors: Mason Alan
Published: August 2008

With the coming of the National Health Service, there seemed a real chance of establishing fuller psychotherapy in Out Patients. This is not to imply that psychotherapy was not given before; but in most hospitals it was necessarilly limited except in special cases, and there was a tendency to leave it a good deal to junior staff who had the time and wanted the experience.
Crime and Folie À Deux: Review and Case History
Authors: Greenberg H. Phillip
Published: August 2008

The phenomenon to which Lasègue and Falret in 1873 applied the term “folie à deux”, had many times previously been recognized and described. William Harvey (1651) noted a case, and his contemporary, Sir Kenelm Digby (1658) not only recorded an excellent clinical description but suggested a psychopathology (Greenberget al., 1956). For Lasègue and Falret, folie à deux was a social rather than a psychiatric phenomenon: the second “passive” subject, they believed, was not truly psychotic but simply “absurdly credulous”. As they saw it, the more authoritative and intelligent “active” partner created the delusions and imposed them on the “passive” subject. This was more likely to occur in a setting of prolonged and isolated intimacy. The delusions were more likely to be accepted if they were plausible and played on the hopes and fears of the second subject. Heredity, they pointed out, offered no overall explanation, for this process frequently involved unrelated individuals. The second subject often accepted the first's delusions only after a fruitless and exhausting struggle to restore his sanity: “the indifferent escape both this useless travail and its consequences.” They held the prognosis for the “passive” subject to be invariably good, providing that the pair were separated. As early as 1563 Wier, writing on the cure of nuns afflicted en masse by demoniacal possession, had advised this course.
The use of Electroplexy (E.C.T.) in Psychiatric Syndromes Complicating Pregnancy
Authors: Smith S.
Published: August 2008

Electroplexy is now a widely accepted and used treatment in psychiatric practice. Primarily it is by far the most reliable means of terminating or resolving depressive attacks, months or indeed years before the anticipated remission of these illnesses on their own accord. Less commonly it is also regarded as an effective treatment in some schizophrenic states, particularly the acute type, or schizophreniform illness, “but actually most schizophrenics are treated at some stage of their illness with electrically induced convulsions” (Kalinowsky and Hoch, 1952). Neither depressive nor schizophrenic syndromes are infrequent in pregnancy and the question must therefore be posed in some of these complications whether electroplexy is justified; whether it can be used safely either alone or with relaxants; and what, if any, deleterious effects may be imposed on the mother and/or foetus.
Psychiatric Uses of Meratran
Authors: Fullerton A. G.
Published: August 2008

Meratran (alpha-2-piperidyl benzhydrol hydrochloride) is a cerebral stimulant with an action not unlike the amphetamine series but differing in other respects in that it does not interfere with sleep, nor appetite, nor is its use followed by depression. It is not apparently a sympathomimetic drug, since it does not cause any marked cardiovascular pressor effects. Recent reports from America (1) have suggested that the drug is of use in treating patients suffering from depression and psychomotor retardation either due to mental illness, fatigue or a side-effect of other drugs, e.g. chlorpromazine or reserpine.
A Note on the Future of Phenylketonuria
Authors: Cawte J. E.
Published: August 2008

The new clan of treated phenylketonurics (1) cannot be assumed to be a happy one, or one with a high proportion of well adjusted individuals. Conceding for the moment that the Phenylketonuric, if he sticks to his diet, will retain much of his intelligence, it is safe to predict that he will be miserable. One of his life's basic processes for satisfaction, his food, has been seriously tampered with, and replaced by a conflict. Eggs, milk, cheese, meat, fish, poultry, most fruit, even ordinary bread, are taboo for his table. He will consume a diet which will be cunningly prepared and flavoured, but he can hardly say that he “eats food”. His fate is that the satisfaction—and the surcease—of incorporating various articles of food does not exist for him, or only in an attenuated form.
Toxic Psychosis Under Cortisone and Corticotrophin
Authors: Ritchie E. A.
Published: August 2008

It is generally conceded that the majority of effectual therapeutic remedies carry potential hazards, some of them incalculable.
Human Brain Lipids at Various Ages in Relation to Myelination
Authors: Tingey A. H.
Published: August 2008

The object of this work has been to examine the lipid constituents of human brains at different ages in order to follow the course of increasing myelination.
Initial Psychiatric Illness in Involutional Women
Authors: Tait A. C. , Harper J. , McClatchey W. T.
Published: August 2008

The diagnostic criteria of descriptive psychiatry inevitably vary between the generations and even from decade to decade. New hypotheses imply new selections from the quite illimitable mass of data which may be collected from any patient. Hence new pictures may emerge whose relation to the old may be only partial, and whose inclusion under traditional rubrics may give rise to confusion, or pose problems which are verbal rather than clinical.
A Survey of Chronic Patients in a Mental Hospital
Authors: Cross K. W. , Harrington J. A. , Mayer-Gross W.
Published: August 2008

A statistical study of large numbers of chronic mental patients may seem to have no direct bearing on the problem of how to treat the individual patient and prevent chronicity. Yet the collection and analysis of mass data form an essential part of epidemiological studies which have made possible many notable advances in preventive medicine. Much of the statistical information at present available in various official documents such as the annual reports of the Ministry of Health and the Board of Control, the Registrar-General's Statistical Review, are so generalized and fragmentary as to be almost meaningless (Lancet, 1955). A few mental hospitals publish annual reports containing broad statistical information; but the detailed facts needed for proper assessment of the size and nature of the problem and for any rational reform are almost invariably lacking. Throughout the field of psychiatry, particularly in connection with the development and effect of chronicity, the existing vital statistics are incomplete and inconclusive.
The Influence of Rhythmic Drumbeat Stimuli Upon the Pulse Rate and General Activity of Long-Term Schizophrenics
Authors: Shatin Leo
Published: August 2008

In our clinical ward programmes we have utilized music rhythm instruments in rhythm groups to stimulate long-term schizophrenic patients and to induce their participation in social group endeavour. These clinical experiences together with various observations in this same connection, heightened our interest in the actual physiologic and motoric response of the schizophrenic patient to music rhythms. The evidence is strong that mentally “normal” persons do respond behaviourally and physiologically to music and its rhythms. Does the long-term schizophrenic patient manifest an objectively measurable response to such rhythm? If it could be demonstrated that the activity and the physiological functioning of the schizophrenic did respond to musical rhythms, then these stimuli might constitute a valid method for the modification of the behaviour of the schizophrenic patient.
A Short Scale for Rating “Activity-Withdrawal” in Schizophrenics
Authors: Venables P. H.
Published: August 2008

Experimental work on the performance of schizophrenic patients indicated that different patterns of response were to be found among patients who could be considered subjectively as withdrawn and inert on the one hand, and sociable and active on the other. This subjective classification appeared to cut across diagnosis within the schizophrenic group.
Recovery Time from Modified and Unmodified E.C.T.
Authors: Little A. F. M. , Reid A. Arnaud
Published: August 2008

During the last few years the use of electroconvulsive therapy in the treatment of out-patients has greatly increased. For example, in 1951, one hundred and forty-one treatments were given in the out-patient department of Freedom Fields Hospital, Plymouth, while in 1955, four hundred and sixty-four were given. There is no doubt that the number of treatments given to out-patients has increased even more in the country as a whole, as many hospitals did not start giving E.C.T. on an out-patient basis until well after 1951.
Back to Moral Treatment and Community Care
Authors: Rees T. P.
Published: August 2008

May I, in the first place, thank you most sincerely for the honour you have done me by electing me as your President during the coming year. Whilst the names of my distinguished predecessors enhance this honour in my eyes, at the same time I cannot help a feeling of humility and inadequacy at the thought of attempting to follow in the footsteps of those illustrious members of our profession whose names shine ever more brightly as the march of time reveals more clearly their contribution to our specialty and to the welfare of the mentally ill.
The Third Element of Speech: Prosody in the Neuro-Psychiatric Clinic
Authors: Monrad-Krohn G. H.
Published: August 2008

The nomenclature of neurology is already so extensive and so chaotic that every proposed new term requires its apology and precise definition before being accepted—just as every term, new or old, should be weeded out, if it cannot be given a satisfactory definition.
Folie à Trois: A Clinical Study
Authors: Wolff Sulammith
Published: August 2008

The following case of Folie à Trois, in which a married couple and the husband's brother shared a system of paranoid delusions, is being reported firstly because of the rarity of the condition, and secondly because it presents several unique features which it is hoped will shed further light on the nature of induced psychosis.
An Enquiry into the Determinants of a Differentiation between Elderly “Organic” and “Non-Organic” Psychiatric Patients on the Bender Gestalt Test
Authors: Shapiro M. B. , Field Jack , Post F.
Published: August 2008

In a previous study, Shapiro, Post, Lofving and Inglis (10) found that a modified version of the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test differentiated, at a high level of confidence, three groups of elderly psychiatric patients: brain-damaged patients, functionals and a group of doubtful diagnosis. This level of confidence was far higher than that of any of the other 24 tests used. Furthermore, a number of recent studies have shown that the Bender test differentiated Organic from non-Organic subjects (2, 4, 6, 7, 8). In our own Department Yates (13) found significant differences on measures of the reproductions of other designs between Organics and Functionals. In view of these findings we decided to investigate our own results further. Our general purpose was to measure and control some of the variables appearing relevant in the performance of the task and in this way make possible testable explanations for the results.
The Relation between Neurosis and Psychosis: A Re-Analysis
Authors: Lorr Maurice , O'Connor James P.
Published: August 2008

Recently D. S. Trouton and A. E. Maxwell (7) reported the results of a factorial analysis of 45 variables derived from an Item Sheet used at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals. Their sample consisted of 819 male hospitalized patients aged 16-59 having non-organic psychiatric disorders. The variables included the major symptoms and past history notations of psychotic and neurotic patients. Their analysis yielded six factors, the first two of which were identified as “psychoticism” and “neuroticism”. The authors conclude that their findings support the view that the varied symptom patterns of mental illness can be accounted for by these independent components.
Factors Involved in Drug-Produced Model Psychoses. II
Authors: Fischer Roland
Published: August 2008

The Malleus Maleficarum, the standard textbook of medieval witch-hunting published in 1484 (2), already mentions that “an illusion of sight and touch can be caused … by the summoning to the fancy or imagination of certain forms and ideas latent in the mind”, and continues by saying that “(the fifth) method of delusion of the devil is by working in the imaginative power, and by adisturbance of the humourseffecting a transmutation in the forms perceived by the senses”. This might be the first working hypothesis ascribing certain behavioural changes of an apparently schizophrenic nature to biochemical influences.
Rauwolfia Alkaloids and Reserpine in the Treatment of the Chronic Psychotic Patient
Authors: Elkes Charmian
Published: August 2008

Reports on the use of Rauwolfia alkaloids in the treatment of the mentally disturbed and on the remarkable central properties of this group of agents have encouraged a trial of the effect of both mixed Rauwolfia alkaloids, and of reserpine in the management and treatment of the chronic psychotic patient.
The Sexual Behaviour of Young Criminals
Authors: Gibbens T. C. N.
Published: August 2008

One of the ways in which the psychiatrist differs from others who work with delinquents is in the importance attached to the sexual history of the offender. The contribution of psychiatrists in this respect has been mainly confined to a description of the emotional and dynamic aspects of sexual adjustment. But it is reasonable to suppose that if these emotional differences are as important as they seem to be from a study of individual cases, they would be reflected in differences in objective sexual behaviour, which are sufficiently definite to be used by criminologists in their more systematic studies. In the case of emotional relationships within the family, for example, psychiatric emphasis has induced criminologists to consider “broken homes” or “maternal separation” in a systematic way, but very few attempts have been made to relate the objective aspects of sexual behaviour and development with criminal behaviour. Even in the Gluecks' exhaustive study of five hundred delinquents and controls, which included psychiatric examination, sexual behaviour was not recorded, but only the presence or absence of sexual conflicts.
Folie À Deux
Authors: Ropschitz D. H.
Published: August 2008

Definition of Folie à Deux

“Folie à deux is the transmission of delusional ideas from a psychotic to closely-associated individuals, who have experienced his domineering influence for a prolonged space of time. This condition may be transferred to three and more individuals”).
The Effects of Pacatal on Chronic Mental Illness
Authors: Simpson R. W.
Published: August 2008

Pacatal is one of the newer so-called tranquillizing drugs. It is a synthetic phenothiazine derivative—N-methyl-piperidyl-(3)-methylphenothiazine which was first investigated in Germany in 1954. It has the same basic structure as chlorpromazine but a different side chain.
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory in Recidivist Prisoners
Authors: Morrice J. K. W.
Published: August 2008

While Visiting Psychiatrist to a convict prison, the author used the M.M.P.I. as an aid to clinical diagnosis. The test did not prove helpful in that respect. Impressive, however, was a profile recurring so often as to appear typical of the recidivist in prison.
Drugs and Personality
Authors: Eysenck H. J. , Aiba S.
Published: August 2008

In a previous paper in this series, a brief discussion has been given of the theoretical reasons for anticipating that depressant drugs would shorten the perceptual after-effects of visual stimuli, and stimulant drugs would lengthen these effects. The present paper is concerned with a related type of prediction, also concerned with certain visual after-effects. The phenomenon in question was first observed by Bidwell; it has not received much study, unfortunately, in spite of its great theoretical interest. The phenomenon is simply this. If a beam of red light (the primary stimulus, or Sp) is thrown into the eye of a person having normal colour vision, that person will report a red sensation, followed after the extinction of the light source by a series of after-images, usually in the complementary colour. The theory governing the appearance of the after-image is conventionally a photochemical one; the Sp produces certain effects in the retina which are opposite in direction for complementary colours and which are reversed when the Sp ceases to act on the retina. This reversal is perceived as the complementary after-image. Bidwell discovered that when the Sp is shown only for a relatively short period of time, say 20 milliseconds, and is immediately followed by a neutral stimulus, such as a beam of white light, then the S is not perceived at all, but only the complementary after-image. In other words, a red stimulus is perceived as green, a green stimulus as red. It is this perception of a non-existent stimulus which caused the phenomenon to be of such interest to psychologists.
Conflict Avoidance in Obsessionals and Hysterics, and the Validity of the Concept of Dysthymia
Authors: Hamilton Vernon
Published: August 2008

This paper sets out to demonstrate similarities of behaviour between obsessionals and hysterics in responses to perceptual conflict, which might be expected on the basis of psycho-analytical theories, but which could not be predicted from the dimensional framework of personality favoured by Eysenck in which obsessionals and hysterics are found at opposite poles of an introversion-extroversion continuum, and in which anxiety states, depressives and obsessionals are grouped together in one indistinguishable category of dysthymia.
Patterns of Cognitive Test Performance As Functions of the Lateral Localization of Cerebral Abnormalities in the Temporal Lobe
Authors: Meyer Victor , Jones H. Gwynne
Published: August 2008

Various investigations into the effects of brain injury on psychological test performance (Weisenburg and McBride, 1935; Patterson and Zangwill, 1944; Anderson, 1951; McFie and Piercy, 1952; Bauer and Becka, 1954; Milner, 1954) suggest the overall conclusion that patients with left hemisphere lesions are relatively poor at verbal tasks, while those with right-sided lesions do worst at practical tasks, particularly the manipulation of spatial or spatio-temporal relationships. Heilbfun's (1956) study confirmed that verbal deficits result from left-sided lesions but his left and right hemisphere groups produced almost identical scores on spatial tests. In so far as these workers paid attention to the specific sites of the lesions, their findings indicate that the pattern of test performance is a function of the hemisphere in which the lesion occurs rather than of its specific locus.
An Experimental Study of Learning and “Memory Function” in Elderly Psychiatric Patients
Authors: Inglis James
Published: August 2008

A paper by Shapiro, Post, Lofving, and Inglis (12) has reported on the relationship of certain aspects of mental functioning to the psychiatric illnesses of old age. This study confirmed that performance on some tasks which appeared to involve “memory function” is relatively more impaired in elderly patients with organic brain pathology than in elderly patients with functional psychiatric disorders. It was also shown, however, that the difference between functional and organic groups on these memory tests was not as great as might be expected on the basis of the commonly held psychiatric hypothesis that memory disorder is one of the leading features of early cerebral involvement in old age. The relatively poorer performance on these memory tests of the organic patients could not be accounted for in terms of, for example, lower intelligence, since the memory tests produced significant differences between the organic and functional groups whereas the intelligence tests did not. A process of correlational analysis (Inglis, Shapiro, and Post (8)) showed that these tests did seem to have some psychological function in common which could usefully be labelled “memory”.
The Hypocholesterolemic Effect of Nicotinic Acid and its Relationship to the Autonomic Nervous System
Authors: Hoffer A. , Callbeck M. J.
Published: August 2008

Nicotinic acid, well known physiologically and chemically as a vitamin if administered in small quantities, has many interesting additional properties when given in relatively large amounts. Altschul (2, 3) found that it markedly decreased the levels of cholesterol in rabbits made hypercholesterolemic by diet, and Altschul, Hoffer and Stephen (4) found that in divided dosages of three grams per day this vitamin produced appreciable decreases in the cholesterol levels of healthy young subjects and in patients from a general hospital. The decrease was related linearly to the initial cholesterol levels while the percentage decrease increased as the initial cholesterol levels were elevated. The incorporation of nicotinic acid into atherogenic diets inhibited the development of arteriosclerosis in rabbits (Altschul (2)). Of seventeen animals tested, two showed intense arteriosclerosis, six showed mild change, and nine showed no arteriosclerosis. Without nicotinic acid, at least thirteen of the rabbits would have had severe arteriosclerosis on the basis of many previous studies by Altschul (2) and by many other investigators.
Prognosis in Senile Deterioration
Authors: McAdam W. , Robinson R. A.
Published: August 2008

It is now generally conceded that slow wave activity tends to appear in the EEG as age advances. Attempts have been made with varying success to relate these slower rhythms to the presence of organic cerebral deterioration.