Fat and Blood: An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and HysteriaMitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Science
Fat and Blood: An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and Hysteria
Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Hysteria; Neurasthenia; Rest
I could relate cases of gain in flesh without manifest relief. As I have
said, these are rare; but it is less uncommon to see great relief
without improvement in weight at all, or until the patient is up and
afoot for some weeks; and I could also state several cases in which a
repetition of the treatment won a final and complete success after the
first effort at cure had failed or but partially succeeded; and of this,
I believe, Professor Goodell has seen several examples.
I have mentioned more than once the singular return of menstruation
under this treatment, and as examples I add a brief list of some
notable instances.
Mrs. N., æt. 29, no menstruation for five years; return of menstruation
at thirtieth day of treatment; continued regularly ever since during
three years.
Mrs. C., æt. 42, eight years without menstruation; return at fourteenth
day of treatment; now regular during five months.
Miss C., æt. 22, no menstruation for eight months; return at close of
sixtieth day of treatment; regular now for four months.
Miss A., æt. 26, irregular; missing for two or three months, and then
menstruating irregularly for two or three months. No flow for two
months. Menstruated at nineteenth day of treatment, and regular during
thirteen months ever since.
I had at one time intended to give, in the first edition of this work, a
summary of all my cases, with the results; but what is easy to do in
definite maladies like typhoid fever becomes hard in cases such as I
here relate. In fevers the statistics are simple,--patients die or get
well; but in cases of nervous exhaustion, so called, it is impossible to
state accurately the number of partial recoveries, or, at least, to
define usefully the degrees of gain. For these reasons I have not
attempted to furnish full statistics of the large number of cases I have
treated.
In the debate before the British Medical Association the question of the
permanence of cures by this method was the subject of discussion. I have
lately been at some pains to learn the fate of many of my earlier cases,
and can say with certainty that every case then treated was selected
because all else had failed, and that I find relapses into the state
they were in when brought to me to have been very uncommon. A vast
proportion have remained in useful health, and a small number have lost
a part of their gains. I now make it a rule to keep up some relation
with patients after discharge, by occasional visits or by letter, and
believe that in this way many small troubles are hindered from becoming
large enough to cause relapses.
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