摘要:

Some questions of the long-term lithium treatment of affective disorders are discussed based on a statistical analysis of 140 patients. The overall results do not differ from those published elsewhere. Even after 4 years of treatment the number of symptom-free female cases is still increasing and goes beyond 50 %, while another 25 % show only subclinical phases. In men the 4-year results are not so favourable and in the fourth to sixth year they are slightly worse. The difference in therapeutic effects between recurrent unipolar and circular depression is only apparent in men. The prophylaxis of relapses of mania is less successful than that of depressions in both sexes. Changes in the course of the illness, in the general condition of the patient and in the endogenous rhythmicity occur mainly in the beginning of lithium therapy, and are probably slightly more frequent than those associated with other psychotropic drugs. The incidence of side effects is somewhat lower after several years of lithium treatment than in the early stages. A form of an organic psychosyndrome appearing during long-term lithium therapy is discussed.

ISSN:0254-4962    

DOI:10.1159/000283584

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1974

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

A case of manic depressive psychosis in which the phases alternated every 60 to 90 sec – called ‘manic depressive turbulance’ – is reported. The illness is interpreted in terms of a model of functional neuronal denervation, which is conceived as underlying all affective disorders. In view of the extreme frequency of the phase changes, an attempt is made to outline a general mechanism underlying the switch from the depressive to the manic phase.

ISSN:0254-4962    

DOI:10.1159/000283585

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1974

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

The age, psychiatric condition, personality, intelligence, number of admissions and of suicidal attempts, civil state, social class, religion and the residential mobility of 45 male patients admitted after a suicidal attempt to Holywell Hospital (in Northern Ireland) in 1971 have been presented. The findings were compared with those in a group of 91 female patients admitted to the same hospital, for the same reason, in the same year. The results of the comparison showed a higher incidence of suicidal attempts in women, and a higher residential mobility. Otherwise there was no significant difference between these two groups in any of the fields investigated. Further, our study suggests that about two-thirds of the patients in both groups used their suicidal behaviour to manipulate their environment to their own advantage, and that most of them achieved their goals by this means. Thus the present investigation seems to confirm our hypothesis about the manipulative nature of the suicidal behaviour in a large proportion of cases.

ISSN:0254-4962    

DOI:10.1159/000283586

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1974

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

Bleuler’s (5) findings on the long term course of schizophrenias are compared with my own findings on the long term course of so called late onset schizophrenias as defined by Bleuler (4). The comparison is used to establish the characteristics of the entire course and of the tendencies of the later course (1.1–1.4 and 2.1–2.3). Similarities were found in the frequency of episodic courses and in the relative stability of the later course tendencies. Differences were found in the greater number of chronic courses, and in the rarity of recoveries after acute episodes, and also in the large number among our own cases of poor psychosocial adjustment after prolonged illnesses in later age. The significance of psycho-organic deterioration in old age is stressed as a factor in assessing the long term course of late onset schizophrenias as here defined.

ISSN:0254-4962    

DOI:10.1159/000283587

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1974

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

In 35 patients with chronic alcoholism of different severity (20 patients after delirium tremens, 9 chronic alcoholics with somatic symptoms and 6 alcoholics without somatic symptoms), cerebral blood flow (CBF) was measured using xenon and a scintillation camera system. Compared to the flow parameters in a control group (17 patients without alcohol abuse and diseases of the central nervous system) CBF was decreased significantly in the alcoholics, and this decrease was dependent from the severity of the clinical syndrome and of the mental disfunction. Arteriosclerotic alterations and brain atrophy cannot explain sufficiently these flow decreases. For their pathogenesis reversible functional impairment of reticular structures in the periventricular grey matter and in the upper brain stem might be of importance.

ISSN:0254-4962    

DOI:10.1159/000283588

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1974

数据来源: Karger

ISSN:0254-4962    

DOI:10.1159/000283589

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1974

数据来源: Karger