The Journal-Lancet, Vol. XXXV, No. 5, March 1, 1915: The Journal of the Minnesota State Medical Association and Official Organ of the North Dakota and South Dakota State Medical AssociationsVarious
Science
The Journal-Lancet, Vol. XXXV, No. 5, March 1, 1915: The Journal of the Minnesota State Medical Association and Official Organ of the North Dakota and South Dakota State Medical Associations
Various
Medicine -- Periodicals
Under this plan, diarrhea, cramps, restlessness, and insomnia are much
less marked. We regard the free use of the prolonged warm bath as more
advantageous to those addicted to drugs than to alcohol. Generally, it
is the only measure that seems to offer relief. We particularly do not
use hypodermic medication in any drug users.
Heroin users, who seemingly are more numerous, receive their drug only
once in twenty-four hours. The withdrawal of the drug does not cause
the discomfort that the withdrawal of morphine causes. Vague sensations
of discomfort, some perspiration, and insomnia are met with in such
cases.
No users of cocaine only have been met with, but in mixed forms this
drug is at once withdrawn.
The removal of alcohol or drugs is the easiest part of the work.
Under the regular discipline of the institution, and the absence of
temptation, the great majority of patients get along without any
trouble because of abstinence. But there is the future to fear. The
patient must go out into the world again, and engage in the daily
struggle for his livelihood. One must aim to put him in such condition
that he may be able to resist the temptations that will surround him on
every hand. Our work, then, is to build up and re-educate, to strive
to form a new character, to encourage a habit of sobriety, instead of
drunkenness, to teach the man to work, to occupy himself, to obtain for
him a new outlook on life, and to teach him his duty to himself, to
his family, and to his neighbor. Here is where our difficulty begins.
Nearly every inebriate has a firm belief in his ability to abstain
from alcohol or drugs at any time and under any condition, because he
thinks he is not really responsible for the condition into which he has
fallen, and that, had not certain things happened, he would not have
been drinking.
He is insistent in iterating and reiterating that he has now made
up his mind to stop drinking, and that is all that is necessary.
Though admitting that, for five, ten, or fifteen years, he has been
going steadily downward, he has full confidence in himself, and he
believes injustice is being done him when his parole is refused and he
learns that he is expected to remain until he has strength to resist
temptation.
In this upbuilding of body and character the following are essential:
regularity of habits, discipline, work, food, and recreation, together
with the personal influence of the physician and those coming into
close and personal contact with the patient.
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