Mental diseases: a public health problemMay, James Vance
Science
Mental diseases: a public health problem
May, James Vance
Mental health services; Psychology, Pathological
"In all forms of cerebral syphilis the psychotic manifestations are
less prominent than in general paralysis and the personality is much
better preserved as shown by the social reactions, ethical sense,
judgment and general behavior. The grandiose ideas and absurd trends of
the general paralytic are rarely encountered in these cases."
It is only of comparatively late years that the hospitals of this
country have shown the frequency of psychoses due to cerebral syphilis
in their reports. Statistical studies indicate that such mental
conditions are quite unusual as compared with other well recognized
clinical entities. In a total of 49,640 first admissions reported by
the New York state hospitals during a period of eight years only 342,
or .67 per cent, were reported as mental diseases due to cerebral
syphilis. The Massachusetts hospitals during 1919 reported only
twenty-seven cases, a percentage of .89. Twenty-one hospitals in
fourteen other states, in a total of 18,336 admissions, showed only 124
cases (.67 per cent) of cerebral syphilis. This represents, therefore,
a total of 70,987 admissions with only 493 diagnosed as psychoses due
to cerebral syphilis,—a percentage of .69. When this is compared
with eleven per cent as shown by the admissions for general paresis
it is probably a very fair index of the comparative frequency of the
two diseases in our institutions. It is interesting to note that the
incidence of cerebral syphilis as shown by the hospitals of the various
states is almost exactly the same. The admission rate for the Casa de
Orates in Santiago, Chili, in 1918, as shown by Letelier, was .90 per
cent.
CHAPTER VI
THE PSYCHOSES WITH HUNTINGTON'S CHOREA, BRAIN TUMOR AND OTHER BRAIN OR
NERVOUS DISEASES
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