Mental diseases: a public health problemMay, James Vance
Science
Mental diseases: a public health problem
May, James Vance
Mental health services; Psychology, Pathological
Physical signs more or less
similar to those already described are to be expected. According to
Marcus, these cases always respond to syphilitic treatment.
A small group of cases, as pointed out by Westphal, shows excitements
strongly simulating the expansive type of general paresis. This form
begins ordinarily with a depression, sometimes appearing suddenly,
followed by irritability, marked restless excitement, headache, and
fainting attacks. Usually there are hallucinations, and delusional
ideas of a grandiose type. Above all there are pupillary disturbances,
increased or decreased reflexes, seizures, paralyses, etc., strongly
resembling paresis. All of these symptoms may disappear under
syphilitic treatment in time. Some cases, however, last for years,
dying as a rule in a seizure. Kraepelin also describes at some length a
group showing the Korsakow complex. He suggests that the fact that this
condition usually develops in alcoholics is not without significance.
Kraepelin is of the opinion that the mental picture is the conspicuous
and characteristic feature of general paresis standing out more
prominently than the physical evidences of the disease. In syphilitic
pseudo-paresis, on the other hand, there is a clearer sensorium without
such marked disorientation, and memory is not usually so much affected.
At the same time, the physical signs are relatively more prominent,
although the speech difficulty and writing defects may not be so
marked. The pupils sometimes show no changes. Hemiplegias with ankle
clonus and a Babinski reflex are, however, disproportionately common.
The eye muscles are much more often involved than they are in general
paresis. Loss of pain sense is not so noticeable. An advanced form of
deterioration of many years standing is against a diagnosis of paresis
and favors cerebral syphilis. In these cases the physical signs drop
somewhat into the background. There are, nevertheless, stationary cases
of general paresis which can be differentiated with great difficulty if
at all. The development of pseudo-paresis is slower and more irregular.
After a seizure and a paralysis there may be a long remission. The
disease, furthermore, does not, like general paresis, always terminate
in death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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