The endocrine concomitants of schizophrenia

Recent Advances in the Treatment of Schizophrenia: Group Training and the Tranquillizers

It was Bleuler (1917) who introduced the conception of “schizophrenia” as a mental illness and described its characteristics. Since 1957 was the centenary of Bleuler's birth the attention of psychiatrists has been focused on the various problems and difficulties still confronting us today regarding the diagnostic, aetiological and therapeutic aspects of this disease.

Iodine-132 Uptakes by the Thyroid in Psychotics

The study of thyroid function as the uptake of radioiodine (I131) is a well-established test. Since the half-life of the isotope is long (8 days) it is unreasonable to make frequent repeated tests in the same person because of the cumulative radiation risk and the complexity of interpretation when residual radioactive iodine is still present in the body. However, in psychiatry daily or twice daily measurements of thyroid function might be very useful in studying patients who show sudden or rapid mental changes (Sands, 1958), and a radioiodine isotope with a half-life of only 2·26 hours which has become more readily available (I132), deserves trial. The primary aim of the present work was to make daily measurements on one man through several short (6-day) cycles of behavioural change. He was predominantly manic-depressive in type and has already been described in detail (Crammer, 1959). To discover how variable the measurement could be, repeated observations were also made on a group of 20 chronic male patients living together and showing an unchanging clinical picture. Observations were repeated on them after three months of chlorpromazine treatment to see whether this would have altered the values obtained for thyroid uptake.

Phylogenetic adaptations and the genetics of psychosis

There is evidence that many social skills and responses which are of adaptive value are under a significant degree of genetic control. It is suggested that in states of hyper-arousal these skills are displayed in inappropriate and incomplete forms and that such behaviour constitutes psychosis. Genetic variation in these skills, under polygenic control, appears to be a determinant of the adaptiveness of the personality, with individuals at the extremes of the distribution tending to be maladjusted, chronically overaroused, and vulnerable to psychotic breakdown. Since the individual subjects's psychotic symptomatology will relflect the make-up of his genotype, the hypothesis is consistent with observed familial occurence of the different froms of functional psychosis. The hypothesis explains many of the characteristic manifestations of psychosis, including those in symptomatic psychosis, and also the genetic association with personality disorder. Evidence for the hypothesis and some predictions it generates are briefly reviewed.

The treatment of prolonged insulin coma

This thesis gives an account of the use of cortisone and adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) in the treatment of prolonged comas occurring in the course of deep insulin coma treatment. Cases in which neither hormone was used are also included. The pathology and aetiology of this type of prolonged coma are discussed and a classification of the cases seen is made.

Adrenal Lipoids as Seen Post Mortem in Schizophrenia

During an investigation of the morbid anatomy of pituitary and adrenal glands of an unselected series of mental hospital patients (1), it was noted that adrenal sudanophilic material and birefringence were reduced in many cases of schizophrenia. It was therefore decided to make a statistical study of such cases in order to determine if any significance could be attached to the findings and if so, to consider how the facts might be related to present knowledge of schizophrenia.