The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-07
FAMILY TROUBLE
 OFTEN CAUSE 0F NERVE COLLAPSE
Business Stress Is Also Contributor To Mental
 Breakdown

NEW YORK, Sept. 6-According to sDr. Edwin c. Zabriskie, secretary of the Neurological Institute of New York, there are four chief precipita ting factors of "breakdowns" and insanity, namely:
 1. Family troubles and home environ ment, including overcrowding. s9S
 z. 0ccupational environment.
 3. The business stress and. worry of m existence in which the constant en- deavor is to increase efficiency in all directions, but chiefly along the lines of production. ,ils.v
 A.. The effects of the war-the herit- age of emotional conflicts, to large ex. tent among those who remained at home. This is considerable degree, but not exclusively, among the foreign X born. \ Jazz. he explained, is an effect, not cause.
 Questioned concerning the effect on city dwellers of the racket in the streets, the slam-bang in our restau- rants, the din in the. subway and the never eeasing voice of the telephone, Dr, Zabriskie said:
 q doubt if they are prime factor, though noise and such turmoil as that in the subway are contributing fac tors they wear on the unstable and the Representative, forming constant source of worry"
 The doctor said that there are no data to show what the relative propor- tior is of the four causes, which he named, in producing the neuroses and the psychoses. He continued:
 als-- .--- der, given, and in offering them at all, can only draw on my observation in the Neurological Institute and in my private practice. The same four causes that operate to precipitate mental: dis eases in the nature of insanity operate in the same proportion in the precipita- ton of neuroses.
 Recognize Trouble Early.
 There is no absolute statistical proof that mental disorders are progressing relatively faster than the population. Nor can I satisfy myself that nervous disorders are increasing at per capita rate faster than mental disorders. But that does not affect the need for recog- nizing the trouble as early as possible and treating 1t so that the patient will get through his period of economic loss --loss of earning ability-as soon as possible. There is where the advance is being made.
 While 1t is probable that the admis- sions to Bellevue, for instance-a sort of receiving station not limited by ac- commodations as are institutions which finally get the worst cases--would show a fairly constant rate for ten years, the public is taking a more tolerant atti- tude toward disqualification. Thisl is a trend in the right direction. The mentally sick are getting care, on the whole, at much earlier stage of their disease than in the past. This is a move toward theI real solution, which is partly matter of pre-ention."5
 Dr. Zabriskie said that there is no higher, proportion of possible nerve and mental cases in the world today than there has been in other periods. He holds there is a fairly constant per centagle of susceptibles, individuals with an inherent tendency toward such
 An especially interesting opinion he expressed when he said: "The war showed that the human individuals has not change since as far back as we can go. He has a personality made up much like those of his predecessors and the individuals emotional behavior in the World War differed little fromgthat of other individuals in previous wars"
 Many of the patients who have gone to the Neurological Institute since it was opened in 1909 have been sufferers probably q fixed proportion of them declared. Many who have thought themselves suffering from nervous trou- bles OF worse have been found to- be suffering from physical ills and have been sent to other iNe titutions for treat ment.
 Some of these cases, he said, illus trate one field for preventive education, and he cited, as an instance where nerves were no more than stupidity and ignorance, the case of girl who sought treatment for nervousness of the stomach" Her supposed neuroses !. was nothing more than her regimen; up at half-past six in the morning, bread and milk or water for breakfast; close work all day with lunch of berries, fruit, sour cream or a pickle an eve ming meal of the same sort and night school: till ten o'clock.
 Home Life And Neurosis,
 Set against her, as a type falling in the first category or home life as a cause of neurosis, is the case of the \ elder of two sons in wealth family. He laid all his troubles to his home life. Investigation showed, however, that his brother, subject to the same envirGlment, had no trace of nervous ness. His home life was the occasion, not the cause, of his disorder. The cause lay in himself and his own nerv- ous mechanism.
 The importance of environment as a precipitating occasion of such sickness is shown more clearly by another typical case quoted by Dr., Zabriskie.
 "A family in a crowded tenement dis trict is an example," said Dr. Zabriskie. "They live in unspeakable conditions. The children are herded together; they all sleep in the same roo.a. T e chill dren; feel Ie brunt of overcrowding. But of this family there is perhaps only one child that goes wrong mentally or nervously, only one who is sensitive sah