On brain and nerve exhaustion (neurasthenia), and on the exhaustions of influenza.

  • Dowse, Thomas Stretch.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On brain and nerve exhaustion (neurasthenia), and on the exhaustions of influenza. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    visit. Now, this mode of procedure is especially harmful, both in regard to the drugs you are employing, and to the patients you are treating. One great part of the treatment of neurasthenics is, to make them feel quite sure, that you have the most implicit confidence in the measures which you are adopting for their cure. And it is not unfrequently the case, that many drugs are discarded as valueless, merely because they are not given in the proper dose, and for a sufficiently long period of time ; hence it is, that we find our patients resort to mesmerists and unqualified practitioners. The majority of nervous people want building up, for they are invariably below par, and the great success of our treat- ment will, undoubtedly, mainly depend upon how this pro- cess of building up is carried out. The physician has to bear in mind the two cardinal points, in the treatment of nervous affections, namely, rest and iititrition; still, it must be remembered, that nervous patients are not, as a rule, liable to acute inflammation, yet they are peculiarly sub- ject to bloodless and congested states of the mucous mem- brane or of the skin^ or, in fact, of any part of the body, so that we have to consider, in what way we can best equalize the action of the vaso-motor nerve-centres, and the current of the blood generally. The remedies, which will be found best adapted to effect this object, are digitalis, ergotine, and the bromide and iodide of potassium. These drugs may be given in small doses, and in combination with any other tonic medicines which we wish to employ. It is also at all times necessary, to keep the blood alkaline, to support secretion, and to secure the due elimination of waste pro- ducts by the skin, the bowels, and the kidneys. We will now consider, how rest and nutrition may be best brought about. First, with regard to rest. This must be both bodily and mental, and the exciting cause of either mental or bodily fatigue must be sought for (and in some cases it has to be sought for with consummate tact, as it is not always apparent), and, if possible, removed. I say if