Benign Stupors: A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction TypeHoch, August
Science
Benign Stupors: A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type
Hoch, August
Manic-depressive illness; Stupor
Repeatedly on other occasions she begged, with distress, to
have her head cut off or to be killed. Frequently there
were statements of self-blame: she ought to have worked
more, was lazy or “I am not worthy”; or she said she had
lied and stolen; or again, “I have not paid for these beds
and I cannot,” or “I am a bad girl.”
3. For a month she presented a more marked reduction of
activity. She sat about with a dejected look, often gazed
in a preoccupied manner, or she stood or walked around
slowly. Sometimes she had to be spoon-fed. At other times
she ate slowly. Toward the latter part of this period, a
distinct tendency to catalepsy appeared. During this
period, too, as a rule (though not always), she would cry
when spoken to. A few times she would make some ineffectual
motions when questioned, but she scarcely ever spoke.
4. Then followed a period again lasting about one month in
which the picture was at times one of still greater
inactivity. She would retain uncomfortable positions, allow
flies to crawl over her face. She presented resistance in
the jaws, did not react to pin pricks. She sometimes sat
with eyes closed or, with an immobile face, the eyes stared
with little blinking. The catalepsy was more decided. She
often would not swallow solid food but swallowed fluid.
Again she held her saliva, sometimes drooled. Once she held
her urine and had to be catheterized. When spoken to she
once smiled at a joke, sometimes there was no response, but
as a rule there were tears or flushing of the face. On the
physical side, there were marked dermatographia and, for a
time, towards the end of the period, profuse sweating.
Throughout the stupor proper her temperature was between
99° and 100° as a rule.
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