Tenth annual report to the committee from the medical director : presented 31st December, 1931 / The Cassel Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders.

  • Cassel Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders (Richmond, England)
Date:
[1932?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Tenth annual report to the committee from the medical director : presented 31st December, 1931 / The Cassel Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    he adored. The uncle died when he was at the University. He felt his great support in life had been taken from him. He found solace from time to time in the friendship of young women, but his Aunt had impressed on him the dangers of sex to such a degree that he was unable to go on with these friendships. Three months after he left Swaylands he relapsed and returned to Hospital. Further discussions of his difficulties were followed by disappearance of his symptoms. He has now been well for about a year. The two dimensional symptom did not return. Group I. Table 1(b) 18. The interest in this patient lies in the diagnosis. He had been ill for two years. His complaints were coldness in the penis, that he heard voices ridiculing him, that there was an “ influence ” against him. The nature and duration of the symptoms naturally suggested that he was suffering from a schizophrenic condition. The fact that the symptoms disappeared and have remained absent does not wholly negative this supposition. Yet the symptoms seemed to go immediately after a psycho¬ genic explanation had been given. He had been distressed over the subject of sex, and his mind had been full of it. There is nothing extraordinary therefore, in his having suffered from sensations of some sort in the penis. It is easy to imagine that people are talking about one if a feeling of guilt is present. We have had other patients with schizophrenic symptoms in the past who were from the subsequent history evidently suffering from anxiety conditions. One in 1926 was apathetic and heard voices. After a month’s observation he was discharged in statu quo. Shortly afterwards we heard that he was well. He had married secretly ; when he went home he told his parents and became well. He has been well since. Group I. Table 1(a) 26. A married man aged 58 complained of great anxiety least his heart was diseased and would stop. He was depressed and retarded. He feared also that certain actions which he had done many years ago might endanger the lives of others at the present time. One of these was that 40 years previously he had driven a nail into a wall upon which to hang a picture and had punctured a gas pipe. He had filled up the hole with soap and said nothing about it rather than report the accident which he knew would have angered his father. He did not give the matter another thought for years. Two years before coming to the hospital he had suffered from severe indigestion. A year later an operation was performed for duodenal ulcer. Three weeks after the operation when he was con¬ valescing satisfactorily an attack of depression came on quite suddenly. Anxiety about his heart developed, and soon the memory of the gas pipe incident came back to him ; this troubled him so much that he had to write to the Gas Company and also to the occupants of the house. The Gas Company investigated the matter and reported that new pipes had been put in some time before and that all was well. This information did not however relieve him in the least. He thought he must have given the wrong number, so another house was suggested and examined with the same result, but still he had no comfort. Other anxieties developed but they were not so severe. At hospital he was persuaded to get up in spite of his supposed heart trouble, but neither previous medical opinion nor present assurances that it was all right weighed with him at all. He went for short walks but never out of sight of his doctor’s window lest he should die suddenly. He was, how¬ ever, caught one day by the doctor rushing up the stairs to fetch something in a hurry, and when questioned about this he admitted that he had momentarily forgotten about his health. Henceforth he made steady progress till he was quite well. No deep investigation of his case was undertaken. Daily persuasion was given and reassurance persisted in. Gradually his depression eased and anxieties about his health ceased, and he became well.