Clinical lectures on neurasthenia / by Thomas Dixon Savill.

  • Savill, Thomas Dixon, 1856-1910.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Clinical lectures on neurasthenia / by Thomas Dixon Savill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    211/250 (page 193)
    chological features met with in sufferers from neurasthenia. Turning next to the psychotherapy of neurasthenia, far be it from me to minimise the value of psychic measures in the treatment of the disorder. If I have in the previous pages emphasised too much what I con- sider may be the physical causes of neurasthenia, it was because I believed they had been too much overlooked. But psychic measures play really a large role in my scheme for all cases, whether dependent on physical causes or not. They form a useful adjunct to all other treatment, no matter to what etiological group (p. 67) the case belongs ; they constitute the main, sometimes the sole, treatment in cases which are of intrinsically nervous origin (Etiological Groups III. and IV., p. 67) ; and, finaU}/, they are of the greatest use in the later treatment of nearly aU cases after they have undergone a preliminary course of treatment for the restoration of any defect of their bodily functions. There are some, like Dr. David Drummond,^ who state that neurasthenia is essentially an affection of mind,” and would give to psychotherapy the sole place in the treatment of the disease. Dr. Paul Dubois ^ also is a great advocate of treating neurasthenia by psychic measures alone. But on reading his descrip- tions of his treatment of serious cases I find he gives the patient rest, removal from home surroundings, strictly limited diet, together with philosophical and encouraging talks. In short, this is a modified Charcot- Weir-Mitchell treatment in which massage is replaced ' The British Medical Journal, July 7, 1906, p. ii. * The Psychic Treatment of Nervous Disorders, by Dr. Paul Dubois, translated and edited by Smith Ely Jelliffe, M.D., Ph.D., and William A. White, M.D., Funk and Wagnall's Company, New York and London, 1906. N. 0