Melancholia; clinical study of 50 selected cases.

Abstract

Since 1940, when one of us (T. T. S.) startedto treat various forms of mental illness with the newly discovered shock technics, an unusual situation has been found in many cases of melancholia. In a large number of cases of mental depression this commonly occurring predicament was not recognized. Instead, these patients were treated for such conditions as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, menopausal syndrome, arteriosclerosis, neuritis, fatigue, cachexia, thyroid disease, chronic gallbladder disease, senility, chronic gastric and peptic ulcer, brucellosis or anemia. Although some of these patients did have high blood pressure, sugar in the urine or signs of the menopause, the diagnosis of melancholia was not made until late in the disease. The elapsed time from the onset of the symptoms to the time of accurate recognition of the disease was three to thirty-six months. This failure of accurate classification was found only occasionally in cases of the cyclic form