Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case historiesSouthard, Elmer Ernest
Science
Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case histories
Southard, Elmer Ernest
Neurosyphilis
1. How typical is the insidious onset of symptoms in the case of
Harrison? The onset of symptoms in neurosyphilis is ordinarily
considered to be sudden, and this statement is generally true
despite the fact that after the diagnosis is established a number
of mild prodromal symptoms can be remembered by the relatives.
However, some cases, of which Harrison is an example, have an
exceedingly insidious onset without sudden access of striking
symptoms. Joffroy and Mignot remark that with the improvement of
clinical methods, the course of paretic neurosyphilis must now be
stated to take some six or seven years for completion. In point of
fact, there were early episodic symptoms (seizures almost monthly)
which should not have escaped medical attention. They did escape
medical attention, however, and Harrison was wont to say “Why
wasn’t I told that my disease was syphilis five years ago?”
2. Is there such a disease as syphilitic neurasthenia? According to
Kraepelin, syphilitic neurasthenia has been described as occurring
shortly after infection and in the first stages of syphilis. There
are milder and severer forms; the milder forms show discomfort,
difficulty in thinking, irritability, insomnia, cephalic pressure,
indefinite variable, uncomfortable sensations, and pains. The
severer cases acquire anxiety, more pronounced emotional disorder,
dizziness, disorder of consciousness, difficulty in finding the
right word, transient palsies, pronounced sensory disorders,
nausea, and increase of temperature. Kraepelin is in doubt whether
there is any definite clinical picture of this sort, and whether
there is any causal relation between the syphilitic infection and
such symptoms as those described. If the effect of knowledge
concerning infection is a merely psychic effect, then it is
improper to term the neurasthenia in question a syphilitic
neurasthenia. For the relation of hysteria to the acquisition of
syphilis, see below the case of Alice Caperson (46). In point of
fact, modern work has shown even in the primary and secondary
stages of general syphilis more or less pronounced neurosyphilitic
phenomena in the shape of the so-called meningitic irritation of
French authors. (Besides the case of Caperson (46), see the case
of Fitzgerald and the discussions under these cases.)
3. What is the relation of the early symptoms of this case to the
so-called preparesis of Dana? The case might well have been an
example of Dana’s preparesis. For a discussion of this, see Case
of William Twist (13).
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