Mental diseases: a public health problemMay, James Vance
Science
Mental diseases: a public health problem
May, James Vance
Mental health services; Psychology, Pathological
A very definite indication of the progress, or lack of progress, made
in determining the etiology of the psychoses is the list of causes
agreed upon at the International Congress of Alienists[60] in 1867:—1.
Physical causes: Artificial deformities of cranium; convulsions of
infancy and dentition; cerebral congestion (primary, not that which
arises in the course of certain forms of insanity); organic affections
of the brain; senility; pellagra; anemia; constitutional syphilis;
intermittent fever; typhoid fever; acute rheumatism; gout and chronic
rheumatism; organic affections of the heart; pulmonary phthisis;
intestinal worms; other acute diseases; other chronic diseases;
suppression of the hemorrhoidal flux; menstrual disorders; metastasis;
alcoholic drinks; abuse of tobacco; other vegetable poisons; mineral
poisons (lead, mercury, coffee, etc.); insolation; intense heat;
intense cold; blows and falls upon the head; other traumatic causes. 2.
Moral causes: Appertain to religion; education; love (love thwarted,
jealousy); family affections; fluctuations of fortune; domestic
troubles; pride; disappointed ambition; fright; irritation; anger;
wounded modesty; political events; nostalgia; ennui; misanthropy;
sudden joy; simple imprisonment; solitary confinement.
In 1897 the New York State Commission in Lunacy in its eighth annual
report published an analysis of the assigned causes of insanity
given in 39,369 cases admitted from 1888 to 1896. Of these 11,999
were reported as unascertained. In the remaining 27,370 cases the
important "assigned causes" in the order of their frequency were as
follows: Moral causes (including domestic trouble, loss of friends,
business anxieties, pecuniary difficulties, grief, fright, disappointed
affections, disappointed ambition, political excitement, religious
excitement, etc.) 6,608, intemperance in drink 4,763, hereditary
predisposition 2,095, old age 1,723, general ill health 1,681,
epilepsy 1,605, ill health following overwork 1,092, masturbation
1,063, puerperal (including childbirth and abortion) 773, traumatic
608, climacteric 502, la grippe 442, sunstroke 402, physical diseases
375, syphilis 368, cerebral diseases 312, intemperance in drink and
narcotics 277, congenital defects 223, shock from injury 167, fever
147, uterine and ovarian disease 132, pregnancy 109, privation and
overwork 110, etc. These are given in detail not that they throw any
light on the question of etiology but that they are quite significant
as to the ideas prevalent on this subject only a few years ago. In
justice to the Commission in Lunacy attention should be called to
the fact that this tabulation does not purport to give actual causes
but those officially "assigned" by the examining authorities or
others interested. Clouston[61] in 1911, in making a statistical study
of 11,346 cases admitted to the Royal Edinburgh Mental Hospital in
the course of thirty-five years, enumerated a long list of causes
shown in the hospital reports.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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