scholarly journals ‘A landmark in psychiatric progress’? The role of evidence in the rise and fall of insulin coma therapy

2021 ◽  
pp. 0957154X2110625
Author(s):  
Robert Freudenthal ◽  
Joanna Moncrieff
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Trials ◽  
Insulin Treatment ◽  
Considerable Debate ◽  
Insulin Coma ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Psychiatric Profession ◽  
Insulin Coma Therapy

This paper examines the evidence behind the use and decline of insulin coma therapy as a treatment for schizophrenia and how this was viewed by the psychiatric profession. The paper demonstrates that, from the time of its introduction, there was considerable debate regarding the evidence for insulin treatment, and scepticism about its purported benefits. The randomized trials conducted in the 1950s were the result, rather than the origins, of this debate. Although insulin treatment was subsequently abandoned, it was still regarded as a historic moment in the modernization of psychiatry. Then, as now, evidence does not speak for itself, and insulin continued to be incorporated into the story of psychiatric progress even after it was shown to be ineffective.

Insulin Coma Therapy of Schizophrenia: Some Critical Remarks on Dr. Sakel's Report

1951 ◽  
Vol 97 (406) ◽  
pp. 132-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Mayer-Gross
Keyword(s):  
Insulin Therapy ◽  
Insulin Treatment ◽  
Insulin Coma ◽  
Insulin Coma Therapy

From Dr. Sakel's address there emerge two questions regarding the indications for insulin treatment in the psychoses which are worth discussing on this occasion:(1) General indications for the treatment: Should every case of schizophrenia undergo insulin therapy, i.e., be admitted to a hospital as soon as the illness has been diagnosed ?(2) Special indications and procedure: What is the role of convulsions in insulin therapy ? What proof is there of the presumed antagonism between coma and convulsion ? Are there any facts supporting the idea that insulin fixes the results of convulsion therapy ?

Cortisone in the Treatment of Schizophrenia

1952 ◽  
Vol 98 (412) ◽  
pp. 401-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linford Rees ◽  
G. M. King
Keyword(s):  
Ascorbic Acid ◽  
Adrenal Cortex ◽  
Therapeutic Value ◽  
Consultant Physician ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Insulin Coma ◽  
Secretory Products ◽  
Insulin Coma Therapy ◽  
Normal Controls

Recent research has given rise to the hope that the secretory products of the adrenal cortex might be useful in the treatment of schizophrenia.Two main lines of research have stimulated renewed interest in the role of the adrenal cortex in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. A number of investigations have produced evidence that the responsivity of the adrenal cortex of schizophrenic patients to stress is lower than that of normal controls (Freeman et al., 1944; Hoagland et al., 1946; Pincus and Elmadjian, 1946; Pincus et al., 1949).Another series of investigations has shown that adrenocortical activity is stimulated by insulin coma therapy, electronarcosis and electroconvulsive therapy (Hemphill and Reiss, 1942; Mikkelsen and Hutchins, 1948; Rees (1949a); Parson et al., 1949).Cranswick and Hall (1950) reported that desoxycortone acetate and ascorbic acid appeared to be therapeutically valuable in schizophrenia. Rees and King (1951) carried out a controlled investigation on the treatment of schizophrenia with desoxycortone acetate and ascorbic acid, and found no evidence that the method was of any therapeutic value. It was pointed out that the investigation did not preclude the possibility that other products of the adrenal cortex might be therapeutically useful in schizophrenia.The present paper describes a controlled investigation in the therapeutic value of cortisone administration in schizophrenia.We are indebted to Dr. Ernest Evans, Consultant Physician, East Glamorgan Hospital, for making available a supply of cortisone for the investigation.

The Lattimore case

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Penrose
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Internal Security ◽  
Johns Hopkins University ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Witch Hunt

Edith’s career and collaboration with Fritz Machlup at Johns Hopkins University flourished and she began work on the growth of the firm, and studied the Hercules Powder Company. As Cold War tensions increased during the 1950s she and Penrose became involved in the defence of their friend and colleague Owen Lattimore who was named as the top Soviet spy by Senator McCarthy. The chapter covers the persecution of Lattimore, his trials, the role of Judge Luther Youngdahl, and the operation of his defence fund. Other friends of E. F. Penrose became victims of the anti-communist ‘witch hunt’, he grew increasingly disillusioned with the USA, and determined he must leave. In 1953 Edith and Penrose testified before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. They were also investigated by the FBI. After five years the case against Lattimore was dropped. Edith’s father died and her brother Harvey was killed in an air accident.

scholarly journals Reform in the international food aid regime: the role of consensual knowledge

1992 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond F. Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Epistemic Community ◽  
Food Aid ◽  
Local Production ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Food Imports

The principles and norms adopted by the regime governing food aid in the 1950s have changed substantially during the subsequent three decades. Explaining the changes necessarily includes analyzing the efforts of an international epistemic community consisting of economic development specialists, agricultural economists, and administrators of food aid. According to the initial regime principles, food aid should be provided from donors' own surplus stocks, should supplement the usual commercial food imports in recipient countries, should be given under short-term commitments sensitive to the political and economic goals of donors, and should directly feed hungry people. As a result of following these principles, the epistemic community and other critics argued, food aid often had the adverse effects of reducing local production of food in recipient countries and exacerbating rather than alleviating hunger. The epistemic community (1) developed and proposed ideas for more efficiently supplying food aid and avoiding “disincentive” effects and (2) pushed for reforms to make food aid serve as the basis for the recipients' economic development and to target it at addressing long-term food security problems. The ideas of the international epistemic community have increasingly received support from international organizations and the governments of donor and recipient nations. Most recently, they have led to revisions of the U.S. food aid program passed by Congress in October 1990 and signed into law two months later. As the analysis of food aid reform demonstrates, changes in the international regime have been incremental, rather than radical. Moreover, the locus for the change has shifted from an American-centered one in the 1950s to a more international one in recent decades.

scholarly journals Retrospectives Whatever Happened to the Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies?

2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avi J Cohen ◽  
G. C Harcourt
Keyword(s):  
Business Cycle ◽  
Endogenous Growth ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Real Business Cycle ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Economic Process ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Simple Models

We argue that the Cambridge capital theory controversies of the 1950s to 1970s were the latest in a series of still-unresolved controversies over three deep issues: explaining and justifying the return to capital; Joan Robinson's complaint that, due to path dependence, equilibrium is not an outcome of an economic process and therefore an inadequate tool for analyzing accumulation and growth; and the role of ideology and vision in fuelling controversy when results of simple models are not robust. We predict these important and relevant issues, latent in endogenous growth and real business cycle theories, will erupt in future controversy.

scholarly journals Insulin coma therapy: let's be factual

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 308-308
Author(s):  
Harold Bourne
Keyword(s):  
Insulin Coma ◽  
Insulin Coma Therapy

scholarly journals Herring and ICES: a historical sketch of a few ideas and their linkages

2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 1652-1661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Sinclair
Keyword(s):  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Pelagic Fish ◽  
Marine Ecology ◽  
Effective Management ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Population Thinking ◽  
Fish Stocks ◽  
Considerable Debate ◽  
Historical Sketch

Abstract Sinclair, M. 2009. Herring and ICES: a historical sketch of a few ideas and their linkages. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 1652–1661. This introduction to the Symposium on “Linking Herring” sketches the development of some ideas generated from herring research within an ICES context. The work of Committee A (1902–1908), under the leadership of Johan Hjort, led to a paradigm shift from “migration thinking” to “population thinking” as the interpretation of fluctuations in herring landings. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the focus on forecasting services for the herring fisheries, although ultimately unsuccessful, had the unintended consequence of generating ideas on recruitment overfishing and the match–mismatch hypothesis. The collapse of the East Anglian fishery led, in 1956, to considerable debate on its causes, but no consensus was reached. Three consecutive symposia dealing with herring (1961, 1968, and 1970) reveal a changing perspective on the role of fishing on recruitment dynamics, culminating in Cushing’s 1975 book (“Marine Ecology and Fisheries”, referred to here as the “Grand Synthesis”), which defined the concept of recruitment overfishing and established the future agenda for fisheries oceanography. The 1978 ICES “Symposium on the Assessment and Management of Pelagic Fish Stocks” is interpreted as the “Aberdeen Consensus” (i.e. without effective management, recruitment overfishing is to be expected). In conclusion, herring research within ICES has led to many ideas and two major paradigm shifts.

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