Mental Hospital Practice Research Articles

The Sero-Diagnosis of Syphilis in Mental Hospital Practice

During the last nine months of 1931 a series of 175 cases were tested for syphilis by means of several reactions, and the results were reported in this journal in January, 1932. During the next nine months the work was continued and considerably extended, and we shall here give the further results thus obtained, together with a statistical expression of the findings of both periods combined.

The Sero-Diagnosis of Syphilis in Mental Hospital Practice

The diagnosis of syphilis, and especially of latent syphilis, has become a matter of increasing importance in mental hospital practice. The great difficulty hitherto experienced has been in connection with the adoption of some routine laboratory test. As long as the Wassermann was the only serological test available, many institutions were confronted with the task of undertaking a test that was too complex and difficult for all but the best equipped laboratories. This is now so well recognized that it has been very definitely recommended that no hospital should carry out the Wassermann reaction unless it has a well-trained laboratory staff headed by an experienced pathologist, and that even then results should not be relied upon unless the number of tests done each week is sufficient to ensure a continuity of technical practice (82, 83, 107). Furthermore, it has been felt that the Wassermann, good though it may be, is yet liable to error, especially in treated cases (45, 72). A search has therefore been instituted for tests that would be simpler, quicker, and, if possible, more sensitive than the Wassermann. As a result a number of flocculation tests have been devised, and these have been extensively tried by syphilologists and others (1, 5, 20, 23, 62, 88, 97, 99, 102, 114, 134). More recently, these flocculation tests have slowly found their way into mental hospitals, and whereas in the Board of Control Report for 1925 no mention is made of any of these tests, in 1930 no less than six of them were reported upon, one of them apparently having been used in five different hospitals (15, 16, 20, 21, 25, 30, 31, 34-36, 40, 42, 43, 48, 49, 100, 112, 113, 132, 133).

Type Psychology: Its Importance in Mental Hospital Practice

When a patient is admitted to a mental hospital his condition is investigated from a number of angles. His physical state is ascertained, including the condition of his blood and his cerebro spinal fluid; he may be found to exhibit such and such a neuro logical symptom. His mental state is probed into, his intelligence estimated, his emotional reactions noted, his complexes even may be progressively dug up. As a crowning summit to this edifice of knowledge a label is at last attached to the case, and a diagnosis arrived at.

Ultra-violet Radiation in Mental Hospital Practice: A Preliminary Survey

The subject of artificial heliotherapy is at present attracting much attention in both scientific and lay worlds. The Board of Control report for 1925 states that there were only five installations in mental hospitals at that time, but doubtless there are more now. I venture therefore to place before you some notes on ultra-violet therapy in the hope that they may be of interest to those thinking of taking up this line of work; and that by their criticisms and observations I may learn from those who have already done so.