“To suit the occasion, I wore my schizophrenic fancy dress”1 – the life of Janet Frame

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 469-471
Author(s):  
Xinhui Lim ◽  
Cherrie Galletly
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Electroconvulsive Therapy ◽  
Psychiatric Patient ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Psychiatric Treatment ◽  
Prolonged Hospitalisation ◽  
Insulin Coma ◽  
Janet Frame ◽  
Insulin Coma Therapy

Objective: Janet Frame (1924–2004) was one of New Zealand’s most celebrated authors. Much of her work stems from her experiences as a psychiatric patient. She was hospitalised for about eight years with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Treatments included insulin coma therapy and unmodified electroconvulsive therapy. Her doctors then planned for her to have a leucotomy, which was cancelled upon discovery that one of her works had won a prestigious literary award. She subsequently moved to England and was assessed at the Maudsley Hospital by Sir Aubrey Lewis. She was found to never have suffered from schizophrenia; her condition was instead attributed to the effects of overtreatment and prolonged hospitalisation. She reflected profoundly on these experiences in her writing, and those who are interested in psychiatry are truly fortunate to have access to her autobiographies, fiction and poetry. Conclusions: Janet Frame has written both autobiographical and fictional accounts of her many years of psychiatric treatment, describing individuals, interpersonal relationships, and everyday life in these institutions. Her own life story demonstrates extraordinary recovery and achievement.

A Controlled Trial of Hypothermia in Chronic Schizophrenia

1960 ◽  
Vol 106 (442) ◽  
pp. 344-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hays ◽  
Gerald Woolfson ◽  
Berenice Krikler ◽  
Brian Day
Keyword(s):  
Electroconvulsive Therapy ◽  
Psychiatric Treatment ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Chronic Schizophrenia ◽  
Physical Methods ◽  
Insulin Coma ◽  
Insulin Coma Therapy

Physical methods play an important part in psychiatric treatment. The roles of electroconvulsive therapy and, to a lesser extent, insulin coma therapy, are fairly well-defined and their effectiveness recognized, though different authorities qualify their recognition in various ways.

5. The evolution of treatments

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Jane Tacchi ◽  
Jan Scott
Keyword(s):  
Electroconvulsive Therapy ◽  
Real World ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Mood Stabilizer ◽  
Psychological Interventions ◽  
The Real ◽  
Potential Barriers ◽  
Insulin Coma ◽  
Physical Treatments ◽  
Insulin Coma Therapy

For many centuries, the only intervention for melancholia involved admission into an asylum, initially to keep individuals away from society and then, from the 18th century, to provide therapeutic care. ‘The evolution of treatments’ discusses the crude treatments that were first introduced for inpatients such as sedation (barbiturates and insulin coma therapy) and physical treatments (electroconvulsive therapy and psychosurgery). Next, it discusses the development of the medications that are used today for inpatients and outpatients, such as antidepressants and the mood stabilizer lithium. Finally, it looks at the evolution of psychotherapies from early Freudian models through to mindfulness and the potential barriers to providing psychological interventions in the real world.

An Evaluation of the Rorschach Test As a Prognostic Aid in the Treatment of Schizophrenia by Insulin Coma Therapy, Electronarcosis, Electroconvulsive Therapy and Leucotomy

1951 ◽  
Vol 97 (409) ◽  
pp. 681-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Linford Rees ◽  
A. M. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Electroconvulsive Therapy ◽  
Rorschach Test ◽  
Insulin Coma ◽  
Insulin Coma Therapy

The possibility of using the Rorschach test to predict outcome of insulin coma treatment of schizophrenia has been investigated by Piotrowski (1938, 1939 and 1941).

scholarly journals Advances in the practice of electroconvulsive therapy

1994 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toni Lock
Keyword(s):  
Electroconvulsive Therapy ◽  
Poor Prognosis ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Electroconvulsive Treatment ◽  
Military Operation ◽  
Objective Evidence ◽  
Insulin Coma ◽  
Insulin Coma Therapy ◽  
Treatment Alternatives ◽  
Physical Morbidity

The first electroconvulsive treatment was administered by Cerletti and Bini in 1938. The event was essentially an experiment, carried out like a military operation (Endler, 1988). The patient was stimulated three times, each time increasing the intensity of the stimulus before a generalised seizure was induced. He had been suffering from an acute psychosis with a poor prognosis, but responded to a course of 11 treatments and was discharged free of symptoms two months later. The first paper on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in English was published in theLancet(Kalinowski) in 1939. At that time, somatic treatment alternatives for the severely ill in large mental institutions included lobotomy and insulin coma therapy. In comparison, unmodified ECT (albeit associated with a significant risk of serious physical morbidity) was predictable, efficient, quick and effective. It is understandable why the treatment became widely and fairly indiscriminately adopted before systematic objective evidence of its efficacy was collected.

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

Relevance of Soft Skills in Career Success

2021 ◽  
pp. 91-102
Author(s):  
Mitashree Tripathy
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Stress Management ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Career Success ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Leadership Qualities ◽  
Hard Skills ◽  
Work Atmosphere

In this fast transforming business economy caused by globalization, it has become incredibly important that employees keep on upgrading their hard skills and polish their soft skills if they aspire for a career that not only pays them well but also promises better opportunities in career development. Though the importance of soft skills is recognised in everyday life, in maintaining interpersonal relationships, in buildings strategies for success, its implications are mainly found in organisations and workplaces. Soft skills, however, play a significant role in building a career. Today to succeed and survive in the competitive workplace employees are expected to change their attitude, attention, and commitment to work. Besides, they are also expected to develop other abilities like effective communication skills, teamwork, leadership qualities, stress management, emotional intelligence etc. Competition is progressively increasing across workplaces worldwide. The need to be fit, flexible and existing is highly intrinsic. Soft skills thus help deal with challenges as they offer essential factors to influence the success of the employees and the organisations. This paper focuses on discussing the relevance of soft skills in career success, job satisfaction, creating a better work atmosphere and bringing about productivity at the workplace.

Studies on the Physiology of Awareness: An Oximetric Investigation of the Anoxaemia Accompanying Insulin Coma Therapy

1952 ◽  
Vol 98 (412) ◽  
pp. 411-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Lovett Doust ◽  
Robert A. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Venous Blood ◽  
Insulin Injection ◽  
Personal Contact ◽  
Blood Oxygen Saturation ◽  
The Real ◽  
Arterial Blood ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Insulin Coma ◽  
Insulin Coma Therapy

This investigation deals with the measurement, by a peripheral method of discontinuous spectroscopic oximetry, of the arterial blood oxygen saturation levels in a group of schizophrenic patients undergoing insulin coma therapy.The association between tissue anoxia and insulin hypoglycaemia was first established by Campbell and Dudley in 1924. Dameshek and Meyerson (1935), using the arterio-venous oxygen difference method with the internal jugular vein as the source of venous blood, showed that the injection of insulin in coma doses was accompanied by an anoxaemia in the schizophrenic patients they studied. This work was confirmed by Himwich, Bowmanet al.(1939), and in another paper Himwich (1951, p. 277) and his co-workers found that the correlation of progressively developing clinical symptoms with the decrease of cerebral oxygen uptake was a closer one than the correlation with the more acute fall in the blood-sugar curve. An important symptomatic aspect of insulin hypoglycaemia includes the progressive changes in the levels of consciousness accompanying the approach towards coma. Wilder (1943) has outlined some of these changes, and Frostig (1940) and Himwich (1951, pp. 258-265) have delineated these awareness thresholds and discussed their relationship to the Hughlings Jackson theory of the phyletic organization of the central nervous system. Thus, during thefirst hourfollowing insulin injection, somnolence and lassitude appear to be associated with suppression of cortical and cerebellar activity; in thesecond hourfurther clouding of consciousness, sometimes with excitement, perceptual disturbances, periods of confusion, exacerbations of previously existing hallucinations and latent psychotic syndromes are seen; in thethird hourmotor restlessness and loss of consciousness suggest the release of basal ganglia and hypothalamus; in thefourth hourdeepening stupor and depression of exteroceptive sensitivity indicate a probable release of the midbrain and suppression of pyramidal function; in thefifth hourthe deep pre-mortal coma presages medullary release. Similarly, it is with awareness changes that many workers prefer to diagnose the “real coma” level in a patient under treatment. Thus Sakel (1937) held that coma was to be diagnosed when no further personal contact with the patient was possible, and Kalinowsky and Hoch (1946) agree that the real coma level is reached when it is completely impossible to awaken the patient.

scholarly journals Unexpected cancellation on a catatonic patient’s electroconvulsive therapy due to the coronavirus pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. e100271
Author(s):  
Kelsey Casano ◽  
Erin Capone
Keyword(s):  
Electroconvulsive Therapy ◽  
Psychiatric Treatment ◽  
Orotracheal Intubation ◽  
Treatment Team ◽  
Dependent Personality Disorder ◽  
Making A Difference ◽  
Positive Treatment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Bag Mask Ventilation

We report a case of a 39-year-old woman with a psychiatric history of schizoaffective disorder with catatonia, dependent personality disorder and substance use disorder whose symptoms have been very difficult to control. During her most recent inpatient admission, she was treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for catatonia. Our treatment team was hopeful that ECT was making a difference for this patient. However, she was only able to receive two sessions of treatment due to new hospital protocols related to the coronavirus pandemic. Although the patient was not suspected to have the coronavirus, she could no longer undergo ventilation with a bag and mask during the procedure. Bag–mask ventilation is known to aerosolise the coronavirus and other diseases and potentially put healthcare workers at risk. Although orotracheal intubation also aerosolises the coronavirus, this was the only means of airway management still allowed by anaesthesia providers at this time. Our psychiatry team estimated that the risks of intubation outweighed the benefits of treatment, and ECT was cancelled.Without additional ECT treatments, the patient again decompensated for several weeks before being stabilised on clozapine, haloperidol and lorazepam. Although she eventually had a positive treatment outcome, her hospital course was likely prolonged due to unforeseen events related to the novel coronavirus. We feel that the current medical climate is unprecedented and is interfering with necessary psychiatric treatment in an unanticipated way. Anaesthesiologists will need to be flexible while working with psychiatrists and identify safe ways to provide this necessary psychiatric treatment for patients.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document