A Special Mental Hospital Unit for the Treatment of Psychosis and Neurosis in Juveniles

1953 ◽  
Vol 99 (414) ◽  
pp. 123-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalton E. Sands
Keyword(s):  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Psychiatric Illness ◽  
Adult Patients ◽  
Hospital Unit ◽  
Hospital Practice ◽  
Special Unit ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
End Results

Since the treatment of juveniles as in-patients in a special unit is somewhat unusual in mental hospital practice, a brief introduction may not be out of place. These units might be considered as another development in a trend which has been progressing for the past 25 years. Until 1930 certification of all admissions to mental hospitals and a mainly custodial régime ensured the majority of patients being largely the end-results of psychiatric illness. Since 1930 the steadily increasing use of the voluntary system has brought many patients to hospital at a stage when their illness can be favourably influenced by modern therapeutic methods. An associated development was the increased provision of wards or units separate from the chronically disturbed cases, or even, as at this hospital, a complete villa system of detached and semi-detached wards for mainly voluntary adult patients.

Learning Clinical Psychiatry in a Provincial Mental Hospital

1974 ◽  
Vol 125 (586) ◽  
pp. 303-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Barraclough ◽  
Godfrey Wace
Keyword(s):  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Clinical Psychiatry ◽  
National Health ◽  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Clinical Skills ◽  
Educational Experience ◽  
Postgraduate Teaching ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mental Hospitals

Postgraduate teaching in psychiatry has always been a function of the provincial mental hospitals, but nothing before has equalled the expansion of theoretical teaching which has taken place over the past ten years. At the heart of the training of a psychiatrist, however, there is the National Health Service job with its own demands, where the practical clinical skills are acquired. The job has not changed much, even though the arrangements for theoretical instruction have improved. Yet changes may be possible which will make the registrar's job more efficient as an educational experience by removing the unsystematic and random elements.

The Bi-Coloured Guaiac Reaction in Mental Hospital Practice

1934 ◽  
Vol 80 (328) ◽  
pp. 87-93
Author(s):  
S. W. Hardwick
Keyword(s):  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Present Report ◽  
Laboratory Diagnosis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Colloidal System ◽  
Supernatant Fluid ◽  
Hospital Practice ◽  
General Paralysis ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
Gold Sol

The object of this investigation was to ascertain the value of the bicoloured guaiac reaction on the cerebro-spinal fluid in mental hospital practice. The reaction, which was first described by de Thurzo (i), is similar in principle to the Lange gold sol test, in that under certain conditions precipitation occurs from a colloidal system. Its originality depends on the fact that two dyes, naphthol green and brilliant fuchsin are contained in the system, one of which attaches itself to the precipitating colloid (brilliant fuchsin), whilst the other (naphthol green) remains in the supernatant fluid. It is claimed that it is not so susceptible to possible fallacies as the gold sol test (such as chemical uncleanliness), that it is possibly more selective in its action, and that it has the same practical value in the laboratory diagnosis of neuro-syphilis. Results have been reported on hospital cases (2) showing fair agreement with the Lange and Wassermann tests, but so far no records are available showing the value of this test in a series of neuro-syphilitic cases from mental hospitals, with the exception of a brief report on 10 cases (3). The present report deals with 325 fluids obtained from cases in L.C.C. mental hospitals, and these included 125 cases of general paralysis treated by malaria and other pyrexial therapies.

Do we still need mental hospitals?

1997 ◽  
Vol 6 (S1) ◽  
pp. 29-48
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Burti
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
Multidisciplinary Teams ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
Custodial Care

“The debate is over” claimed a heading in a newspaper on the 1991 Amsterdam WHO conference ‘Changing mental health care in the cities of Europe’: “After half a century of debate of the issue of deinstitutionalisation the question is not any more if we should close the large mental hospitals, but what follows the closure and how to develop adequate community mental health care which replaces the functions of the mental hospital” (Gersons & Burns, 1992).These ‘functions’ have actually secured the long-lasting success of the mental hospital which has been in the past and, to a certain extent, still is in a number of countries, the cornerstone of psychiatric care. It incorporates all the functions of a psychiatric system in a single, usually isolated facility, including crisis intervention, evaluation, treatment, aftercare, long-term custodial care, rehabilitation, etc. In order to phase down the mental hospital these functions have to be supplemented by newly established, discrete services disseminated in the community. The process is clearly a complex one, since it implies a transition from a system of care provided only in mental hospitals under medical direction, to one that is comprehensive in scope, community-orientated, and staffed by multidisciplinary teams.

A Series of Cases of Encephalitis Lethargica at Whittingham Mental Hospital

1928 ◽  
Vol 74 (304) ◽  
pp. 87-92
Author(s):  
B. Reid
Keyword(s):  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Epidemic Encephalitis ◽  
Encephalitis Lethargica ◽  
Chronic Stage ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
Large Institution

Epidemic encephalitis has become an increasingly important cause of insanity among the population, and during the past few years this disease has been seen more and more among the new admissions of mental hospitals. The various forms in which this disease may manifest itself in the chronic stage are now well known, and can be intimately studied in any large institution. Up till the present, however, no account has yet been reported, so far as I am aware, of the appearance of encephalitis lethargica among patients already resident in a mental hospital.

Ultra-violet Radiation in Mental Hospital Practice: A Preliminary Survey

1927 ◽  
Vol 73 (301) ◽  
pp. 200-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. K. Drury
Keyword(s):  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Ultra Violet ◽  
Preliminary Survey ◽  
Hospital Practice ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
Ultra Violet Radiation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Violet Radiation

The subject of artificial heliotherapy is at present attracting much attention in both scientific and lay worlds. The Board of Control report for 1925 states that there were only five installations in mental hospitals at that time, but doubtless there are more now. I venture therefore to place before you some notes on ultra-violet therapy in the hope that they may be of interest to those thinking of taking up this line of work; and that by their criticisms and observations I may learn from those who have already done so.

Admissions and Readmissions to Three London Mental Hospitals

1961 ◽  
Vol 107 (451) ◽  
pp. 1070-1077 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. W. Brown ◽  
C. Murray Parkes ◽  
J. K. Wing
Keyword(s):  
Mental Hospital ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Discharge Policy ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Hospital Statistics ◽  
Consistent Tendency

In discussing current trends in mental hospital statistics, it is convenient to make a distinction between patients who have been resident for more than two years (the longstay group) and short or medium stay patients. The chances of discharge, once an individual has been resident for two years, are low and become progressively lower the longer he stays. In mental hospitals in England and Wales from 70 to 80 per cent. of patients are longstay; and the majority of these are diagnosed as schizophrenic (75 per cent. in 1954), although no more than one-third of newly admitted patients are given this diagnosis. There has been a consistent tendency over the past 30 years for a decreasing proportion of schizophrenic patients to be retained continuously for two years after admission—for example, about 60 per cent. of schizophrenics admitted in 1930 were retained in this way, compared with 30 per cent. in 1950 (Brown, 1960). Since then there have been important changes in social treatments and administrative policies, and the major tranquillizers have been introduced. The proportion of schizophrenics retained for two years or more has now approached 10 per cent. at many hospitals (Brown, 1959; Wing et al., 1959). However, very little is known in numerical terms about the extent to which the patients have to be readmitted to hospital once they have been discharged. The only satisfactory studies of the readmission of schizophrenic patients were made before the introduction of the recent changes in discharge policy, and dealt with admission cohorts in which the proportion retained for two years ranged from 60 to 30 per cent. (e.g. Freyhan, 1958; Shepherd, 1957). Reduction within this range did not appear to lead to an increased risk of readmission. However, the possibility cannot be dismissed that a further reduction would lead to the discharge of patients with a special liability to relapse and readmission.

Psychopathy and Psychoses Associated with Alcohol

1938 ◽  
Vol 84 (353) ◽  
pp. 985-990 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Minski
Keyword(s):  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Delirium Tremens ◽  
Good Prognosis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
Points Of Interest ◽  
Number Of Patients

For some years following the war the number of patients admitted to mental hospitals whose illnesses were associated with alcohol definitely decreased, but recently the number again appears to be on the increase. During the past eighteen months 50 patients whose illnesses were the result of alcoholic excess were admitted to St. Ebba's Hospital. As this hospital is set aside for recoverable cases, it is possible that the number is in excess of that admitted to other mental hospitals, owing to the fact that many alcoholic psychoses such as Korsakov's disease and delirium tremens have a good prognosis. Nevertheless, in my capacity as consultant to an observation ward I have found that many patients who are suffering from delirium tremens, “pathological drunkenness “, etc., are admitted to such wards, who rapidly clear up and are discharged without being admitted to a mental hospital, and the impression gained is that the number of alcoholics is steadily increasing. It is not proposed to discuss the symptomatology of the various forms of alcoholic psychoses, which are well known, but to discuss various points of interest which arose during the investigation of these patients.

Changes in Duration of Stay of Mental Hospital Patients Suffering from Functional Psychoses During the Past 20 Years

1954 ◽  
Vol 100 (418) ◽  
pp. 241-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Harris ◽  
Vera Norris
Keyword(s):  
Mental Hospital ◽  
County Council ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
Functional Psychoses ◽  
Hospital Patients ◽  
Mental Treatment ◽  
Mental Defectives ◽  
Methods Of Treatment

We have reported a follow-up study of patients first admitted to London County Council Mental Hospitals in 1930 (Harris and Lubin, 1952, Harris and Norris, in press). The present paper deals with a group of similar patients, i.e., psychotics from whom epileptics, known organic cases, ascertained mental defectives, those over the age of 40 and those who had been admitted to a mental hospital previously were excluded, who were transferred to mental hospitals from St. Francis Observation Ward during the period May 1940 to May 1942. The main differences between this group and the 1930 one were: (a) The Mental Treatment Act of 1930 had come into operation and many were admitted to mental hospitals as voluntary patients; (b) modern physical methods of treatment were in use; (c) in most cases the history was known.

Syphilis in Mental Hospital Practice

1937 ◽  
Vol 83 (345) ◽  
pp. 472-477
Author(s):  
David Prentice
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
General Population ◽  
Mental Hospital ◽  
The Body ◽  
Occurrence Rate ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Hospital Practice ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
Mental Diseases ◽  
One Year

Dr. Prentice said that syphilis, in its incidence, diagnosis and treatment, presented, in mental hospital practice, problems which differed from those met with in dealing with the disease in general practice and in V.D. clinics. In the former its incidence was higher than in the general population, and that was largely because many of those whose nervous system had become affected by the later stages of the infection ultimately developed a psychosis. Drugs which were efficacious in somatic syphilis showed but little therapeutic effect in the treatment of the nervous system when affected by syphilis. There was a wide variation in the syphilis occurrence-rate among new admissions to mental hospitals, namely, from 5% to 31%; there was no doubt that incidence varied in different parts of the country; for instance, at Whittingham Mental Hospital, Lancashire, the male admissions in one year showed 21–9% with syphilis, and females 8–9%. At Narborough in the past two years—using the same methods of diagnosis—the positive males were only 7–7%, the females 4–6%. It was difficult to estimate reliably what proportion of the general population suffer from syphilis, but comparison of the figures of the Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases with those given by numerous workers in mental hospitals—excluding cases of general paresis and meningo-vascular syphilis—showed that the part played by syphilis in the ætiology of ordinary mental diseases must be a very small one. Bearing in mind the body-mind relationship, any toxic or infective process which could be a factor in the ætiology of mental illness should be dealt with. Even if the disease were predominantly psychogenic, all possible physiogenic factors should be eliminated or dealt with.

Affective Disorders Arising in the Senium

1955 ◽  
Vol 101 (423) ◽  
pp. 302-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. K. Kay ◽  
Martin Roth ◽  
Barbara Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Affective Disorders ◽  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Psychiatric Illness ◽  
Late Onset ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Residential Area ◽  
Similar Proportion ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
Affective Disturbances

The importance of the psychoses of later life has been demonstrated by Cook, Dax and Maclay (1952), who found that 15 per cent. of patients admitted to mental hospitals in this country were aged 65 or over. Our own corresponding figure (derived from a Mental Hospital serving a county with a mixed rural and residential area) is 20 per cent. for the year 1953. Furthermore, it has been shown by Roth (1955) that about one-half of all admissions aged 60 and over are suffering from affective disturbances, and that of these over one-half have had no psychiatric illness before that age. Robertson and Brown (1953) report a similar proportion with late onset in their material.

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