Observations on organic brain damage and clinical improvement following protracted insulin coma

1954 ◽  
Vol 28 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 72-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Revitch
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. M. Chumakov ◽  
N. N. Petrova ◽  
V. V. Rassokhin

HIV and syphilis have similar epidemiological characteristics which causes a high level of combined infection. Both STDs affect the central nervous system early after infection. Mental disorders occur with a high incidence in HIV-infected patients and patients with syphilis, but data on the effect of combined HIV and syphilis infection on mental disorders are found only in single articles. Objectives. The goal is to study mental disorders and their effect on the commitment to observation in the infectionist in HIV-infected patients with early syphilis. Materials and methods. A comparative study of 148 patients (65 HIV-infected patients with syphilis, 50 patients with syphilis monoinfection, 33 HIV-infected patients, seronegative for syphilis) was carried out. We used clinical, psychopathological, follow-up, psychometric, laboratory and statistical methods of investigation. Results. It was found that mental disorders occur in the majority (83%) of HIV-infected patients with syphilis with the predominance of affective (54%) and addictive (48%) disorders. In HIV-infected patients with early neurosyphilis, psychogenic reactions developed statistically significantly more often than in HIV-infected patients with early syphilis. In contrast, there were no statistically significant differences in the incidence of addictive, affective, personality disorders and mental disorders due to organic brain damage in patients with early neurosyphilis and early syphilis in the case of co-infection with HIV infection. Mental disorders due to organic brain damage had a mixed genesis (including infectious) in all cases and were associated and caused by the already existing HIV infection. HIV-infected patients with syphilis, in general, were characterized by the low commitment to observation in the infectionist which were influenced by the following factors: social maladjustment, drug abuse and criminal activity. Discussion. The frequency of detected mental disorders in the examined HIV-infected patients with syphilis (83,1%) corresponded to the literature on the incidence of mental illness in HIVinfected patients inSt. Petersburg(85,6%), but was higher than the prevalence of mental disorders in patients with syphilis (68%). Given the established influence of neurosyphilis mono-infection on the development of mental disorders due to organic brain damage, it can be concluded that the disease with early neurosyphilis is important in the development of mental disorders of organic genesis. But the weight of this factor is insufficient in case of co-infection with HIV and early neurosyphilis and can only have additional significance in the development of mental disorders and the key factor is HIV-infection action. Mental disorders (addictive disorders and cognitive impairment) adversely affect the commitment to observation in the infectionist of HIV-infected patients with syphilis, therefore timely correction of mental disorders may be one of the factors improving compliance of patients. Conclusions. The study found a minor role of early neurosyphilis (as opposed to HIV infection) on the formation of mental disorders in the case of a combination of these infections. At the same time, it was found that addictive and cognitive symptomatic complexes have a negative impact on the probability of reference to an infectious disease specialist for initiating therapy in HIV-infected patients with syphilis.


1975 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela M. Pardue

Although the Bender-Gestalt test has proven adequate in differentiating groups of organic from groups of nonorganic Ss, attempts at individual diagnosis have frequently met with failure. Canter's Background Interference Procedure was designed to increase the sensitivity of the Bender test to the discernment of organic brain damage. The purpose of this paper was to check the validity of the Canter procedure, and to investigate its applicability to Hain's scoring system for the Bender test. 20 brain-damaged patients, 20 schizophrenics, and 20 nonorganic, non-brain-damaged patients were matched for age and intelligence. Each of these groups was further divided into outpatients and inpatients All patients were administered the Bender test on the standard white paper, the WAIS vocabulary subtest, and again the Bender test, on paper for the Background Interference Procedure. Significant results were obtained with the Background Interference administration for both Pascal-Suttell's and Hain's scoring systems where the standard administration had failed to yield significance. The tentative criteria proposed by Canter for individual diagnosis, however, were adequate for Pascal-Suttell's scoring system but not for Hain's method. Possible explanations for this disagreement, as well as suggestions for further research, are offered.


1970 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 995-999 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Obrzut ◽  
Roger C. Thweatt

The spiral aftereffect (SAE) apparatus was administered to 100 Ss, 50 independently medically diagnosed organic patients and 50 normals matched in sex and age to the first group. Each S was given standard instructions for six trials of 30-sec. exposure time. Variables, such as rate and direction of rotation, lighting intensity, light adaptation, etc., were controlled for all Ss. Scores and percentage computations of Ss in the various diagnostic groups indicate that the spiral aftereffect test has significantly differentiated between cases of organic brain damage and those who are normal ( χ2 = 42.2, p < .01, df = 1). No differences were shown between infectious vs noninfectious organics and convulsive vs nonconvulsive organics. However, there was a significant difference between prenatal organics and postnatal organics (χ2 = 21.4, P < .01, df = 1). For the entire group there were 32% false negative classifications and 8% false positive classifications.


1951 ◽  
Vol 97 (409) ◽  
pp. 725-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. R. L. Hall ◽  
T. G. Crookes

Ability to learn and retain relatively unfamiliar materials has been shown to be impaired in many clinical syndromes, both organic and functional. The testing of this ability features in some form or other in several clinical tests of intelligence, such as the Wechsler Scale and the Binet, while it is more directly tested in the various memory scales. As is well known, efficiency of learning declines with age, and can be greatly reduced by organic brain damage. There is evidence also, which we shall briefly review, that it can be variably reduced in schizophrenia and in psychoneurosis.


1992 ◽  
Vol 49 (11) ◽  
pp. 776-781
Author(s):  
N M Cherry ◽  
F P Labreche ◽  
J C McDonald

2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard Roy Frank

Since its introduction in 1938, electroshock has been the subject of intense controversy; there appears to be little if any middle ground between the positions taken by its proponents and opponents. The author/editor, himself an insulin coma-electroshock survivor, has for more than 30 years actively opposed any use of electroshock on the grounds that the procedure is inherently destructive and dehumanizing. The Introduction briefly describes the nature of the controversy, provides background information, lists the diagnoses for which ECT is (or has been) used and its effects, describes the method of administration, offers some answers to the question of why it seems to “work” in certain instances, lists some of the well-known individuals who have undergone the procedure, and closes with a short overview of the current situation. The text presents a historical perspective on ECT in the form of 78 chronologically arranged excerpts from professional and lay writings. Included are descriptions by survivors of their experience with ECT and how it affected their lives, as well as reports and claims regarding clinical and nonclinical uses of ECT, its effectiveness and ineffectiveness, and its safety and danger (especially brain damage, memory loss, learning disability, and death).


1989 ◽  
Vol 154 (5) ◽  
pp. 716-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santosh K. Chaturvedi

The case of a young, unmarried boy, who had moderate mental retardation, epilepsy, and post-ictal psychosis, is described here. During the psychosis, he believed he was pregnant, and had related behavioural disturbances. The review of other such cases reveals that organic brain damage was evident in all cases. Brain damage seems to be the more likely causative factor than psychodynamic factors.


1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-190
Author(s):  
Harold L. Levitan

In a third investigation of psychological factors in the etiology of ulcerative colitis the author again utilizes selected cases in which the variables preceding illness are limited. A first and second investigation had utilized patients who were afflicted with partial deafness and organic brain damage respectively in addition to ulcerative colitis. All patients displayed a marked trend to objectlessness in the prodromal period. The patients with organic brain damage displayed an intense rage reaction as well. The present investigation focuses upon two patients with ulcerative colitis who had been traumatically separated from their mother at age six months. The prodromal period of illness in both cases was initiated by an event which possessed a strong associative link with the primal loss. During the prodromal period both patients displayed an intense rage reaction and a trend to objectlessness which were similar to the reactions of the patients with organic brain damage. This particular emotional configuration appears to represent the revival of the emotional configuration which had prevailed following the loss in infancy. Some tentative ideas regarding the role played by the revival of the archaic emotional configuration in the production of physical changes are discussed.


1980 ◽  
Vol 137 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Craft ◽  
A. A. Schiff

SummaryOne hundred and two mentally handicapped and severely mentally handicapped patients with behaviour disorders and superadded mental illnesses which, in most cases, had not responded adequately to oral medication, entered a 12-week study of fluphenazine decanoate depot injections. Some of the patients had the additional complications of epilepsy, organic brain damage, and physical handicap. Highly significant overall improvements occurred, irrespective of such factors as the patient's age, sex, degree of mental handicap, or co-existence of epilepsy, or brain damage. Hyperpyrexia was not encountered. Extrapyramidal disturbance in 22 of the patients, were mostly well controlled by antiparkinson medication; eight of the 12 patients with pre-trial extrapyramidal abnormalities lost these during the study. Fluphenazine decanoate injections proved a reliable drug-delivery system, which may improve difficult behaviours and enable the mentally handicapped patient to be more receptive to behaviour-shaping exercises, aimed at improving long-term personality adjustment.


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