Eighth annual report to the committee from the medical director : presented 31st December, 1929 / The Cassel Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders.

  • Cassel Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders (Richmond, England)
Date:
[1930?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Eighth annual report to the committee from the medical director : presented 31st December, 1929 / The Cassel Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In the depressive psychotic group, there were nine patients. Six went out in statu quo ; three of them are now well. Two went out well, one of them has since relapsed. One became manic in the hospital and was discharged. Two patients suffered from hypochondria and were discharged in statu quo. There were six patients suffering from organic disease, two with Parkinsonism, one with alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, one with mitral disease with oedema of the legs, one with arterio sclerosis, and one with cerebral degeneration. There were thirty-six patients in the hospital during 1928, who had been in previously. Thirteen suffered from anxiety states. Four did not improve on this second visit ; the other nine showed marked improvement. Only three of these were relapses. The other six felt that they wished to see if still more improvement than they had gained was possible. In two the re-admissions were really continuations of treatment. The patients had for private reasons been obliged to go home for a time. There were fourteen cases of hysteria of which two were examples of anorexia nervosa. Of these fourteen, four did not benefit materially from their second stay ; the others did improve. Of the two patients with anorexia nervosa, one had lost all the weight she had gained and was without appetite. She again gained and on this occasion, has so far kept well. The other, during her first stay, was very recalcitrant and left unimproved. In this second stay she gained one stone. Two patients suffered from obsessive states. One, a girl of twenty, with washing mania had lost this symptom on her first stay ; it had not returned. Her mother complained that she was still a very fussy person, taking too long to dress and that she was constantly arranging and rearranging things. She will probably remain an over particular person, but she is more easy to live with. Two patients suffered from the manic depressive psychosis. They had attempted to live out¬ side but felt themselves unequal to it and were re-admitted. One is now very well; the other has not been heard from. There were two schizophrenic patients. Both had improved greatly at the first visit. One had continued at her work as a clerk all the time she had been away—18 months. She again improved and has returned to work. The other, on her second admission, was so ill that we could not keep her. One patient who had been in the hospital in 1924 on account of post-concussional symptoms, was found on this occasion to be suffering from cerebellar degeneration. It seems necessary that we should re-admit a certain number of patients. There are some who improved, kept at work for years and then began to feel that they were breaking down again. There can be no doubt that they should be re-admitted. There are others who leave experimentally for the laudable reason that they wish to try to return to their work before they are quite fit. They may succeed, but if they do not, and we are satisfied that further treatment would put them on a sound basis, they should be taken back without delay. There are however, some who wish to use the Hospital as a permanent refuge or even as a pleasant place in which to pass the holidays. We refuse these. As might be expected, this class does not take a refusal easily ; much pressure on the part of relatives and doctors has to be encountered.