Treatment Of Psychiatric Patients Research Articles

The Use of Television in Psychiatric Treatment and Education

Since the late 1950's television has proved to be an invaluable tool in the treatment of psychiatric patients and the education of medical students. Techniques for the treatment of patients center around the idea of self-confrontation. In addition methods of treatment can be taught and careful evaluation of therapy sessions becomes possible. Production techniques have evolved to catch the nuances of movement in the patient as well as an overall view of the session. Placement of camera and microphone is sometimes a problem because the presence of a third party may disrupt the therapeutic process. The use of television in psychiatry is no longer experimental but has become an integral part of teaching and treatment.

Suicide and Community Care

In recent years there has been a considerable shift towards the treatment of psychiatric patients outside hospital; and although progress in the expansion of such services as hostels, day centres and social work has in many places been slow, the idea of a Community Service based on home care whenever possible has become a popular one and forms the basis of official planning in this country (16). Doubts have, however, been expressed as to the wisdom of so great an emphasis on this untried method of management (13, 34, 39); the proper evaluation of Community Care is therefore of great importance.

Ocular manifestations of chronic phenothiazine derivative administration.

Since their development, the synthetic phenothiazine tranquilizing drugs have been used in fairly prolonged and high dosage in the treatment of psychiatric patients. Of these compounds, chlorpromazine (Thorazine), one of the first introduced, has been the most widely used. This drug has been implicated in numerous reversible toxic side effects involving practically every system. Among the most serious of these heretofore were blood dyscrasias, extrapyramidal syndromes, and hepatic disorders. However, from recent reports, 1-4 it has become evident that, in contradistinction to these reversible complications, there are late, cumulative, and possibly permanent changes arising after long-term administration of large doses. Greiner and Berry 1 reported that among the 5,000 patients at a British Columbia mental institution there were 70 who had gradually developed a striking purplish pigmentation of the exposed skin. This was characterized on biopsy by deposition of a melanin-like pigment in a perivascular distribution in the superficial dermis.

Milieu homogeneity in the treatment of psychiatric patients

Milieu homogeneity in the treatment of psychiatric patients

The Home Visit in the Treatment of Psychiatric Patients Awaiting Hospitalization: A Pilot Study

The Home Visit in the Treatment of Psychiatric Patients Awaiting Hospitalization: A Pilot Study

A comparative study of selected tranquilizers in the treatment of psychiatric patients.

1Veterans Administration Hospital, St. Cloud, Minnesota. This study was conducted in connection with the Veterans Administration's Psychiatric Evaluation Project

443. Home treatment of psychiatric patients.

443. Home treatment of psychiatric patients.

Drugs in emotional disorders: past and present.

Excerpt Widespread interest in drugs currently used for treating emotional disorders has created the erroneous impression that pharmacologic approaches to psychiatric treatment are something new. B...

Community needs of elderly psychiatric patients.

Treatment and care of psychiatric patients within the community rather than in the overcrowded wards of mental hospitals have been recommended by a Royal Commission (Report, 1957) and are about to become one of the corner-stones of the new Act of Parliament governing the legal aspects of mental illness. Recent accounts of out-patient, day-hospital, and domiciliary psychiatric treatments have gained so much attention that it is unnecessary to summarize them here. Few people would deny that these movements are in the right direction and are likely to benefit a large proportion of patients. But, to avoid imposing undue strain on their families, treatment of psychiatric patients within the community will have to be conducted in a spirit of flexibility and co-operation between hospital and community. We cannot overstress the paramount need for rapid and, if necessary, repeated interchanges between specialist treatment under the aegis of the hospital, and aftercare and support by the family, the general practitioner, and the services of the local authorities. Co-operation in passing the ball rather than the buck is a conditio sine qua non if patients who are both mentally disordered and elderly are to be treated outside hospitals ; and workers like Macmillan (1957) and DeLargy (1957) have pointed the way in which rapid changes between specialist treatment and community care can be achieved. Hospital costs can no doubt be greatly reduced by cutting down the time spent by people occupying hospital beds, but the public should be warned that adequate community services for the discharged patient are likely to be very expensive in terms of man-power (general practitioner and specialist time, home nursing, occupational and social therapy, etc.), of buildings, and of transport from home to treatment and occupation centres.

The role of ancillary personnel in the total treatment of psychiatric patients.

The role of ancillary personnel in the total treatment of psychiatric patients.

Parkinsonian Reactions Following Chlorpromazine and Reserpine

Chlorpromazine and reserpine, in the large doses used in the treatment of psychiatric patients, produce striking side-effects in a fairly large percentage of patients. One of these reactions found after chlorpromazine as well as after reserpine medication is a Parkinsonian syndrome. Its occurrence seems to be related to dosage and the duration of medication and is reported in about 10% of the patients after chlorpromazine administration. The incidence reported in the literature extends from no cases to the statement that all patients who are on large doses of thorazine ® for any length of time show some signs of basal ganglion dysfunction. 1 We found that the incidence of 9.3% reported by Freyhan, 1a with 5.1% requiring termination of the treatment and 4.2% not requiring termination, is a figure corresponding to our own observations. Parkinsonian reactions during reserpine medication were noted by others—for example, by Kline and Stanley 2 in

Physical medicine and rehabilitation methods in the treatment of psychiatric patients.

Physical medicine and rehabilitation methods in the treatment of psychiatric patients.

Treatment of Psychiatric Patients with Thorazine

Treatment of Psychiatric Patients with Thorazine

Gerstmann symptoms following electroshock treatment.

IN A RECENT communication, Juba1has reported the occasional occurrence of the various elements of the Gerstmann syndrome (finger agnosia, right-left disorientation, agraphia, acalculia) as an immediate consequence of electroshock treatment in psychiatric patients. The typical picture is described as follows: After the cessation of convulsions and the clearing of consciousness, and at a time when the patient is personally oriented (i. e., is able to give his name, date and place of birth, residence, etc.), is able to name colors and a variety of objects, and can identify various parts of his body (nose, mouth, eyes, etc.), he may show a striking inability to point out or name his fingers when requested to do so. In some cases the finger agnosia is accompanied by one or more of the other elements of the Gerstmann syndrome—right-left disorientation, agraphia, and acalculia. Further, at this time the behavior of the patient

Treatment of Psychiatric Patients in General Hospitals

Treatment of Psychiatric Patients in General Hospitals

THE ELECTROCARDIOGRAM IN INSULIN SHOCK

The use of extreme states of insulin shock in the treatment of psychiatric patients, particularly of those with schizophrenia, has in the last few years afforded an opportunity to study electrocardiographic changes in presumably normal hearts under the influence of large doses of insulin. Insulin shock therapy was introduced by Sake¹in 1933 for patients with hitherto relatively hopeless schizophrenia. After a preliminary period of suspicious aloofness, psychiatrists and physicians interested in mental disease have adopted the method on a large scale because of the brilliant results at times achieved. The method and technic are given in detail in Sakel's monograph and elsewhere. The usual technic requires patients to be in coma from hypoglycemia for an hour or more. This means that from the time the insulin is injected to the termination of the coma three to five hours elapses, during which severe hypoglycemia is present, with minimum blood sugar