Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T06:49:12.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Electrical Termination of Hypoglycaemic Coma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

J. D. Montagu*
Affiliation:
Runwell Hospital, Wickford, Essex

Extract

Prolonged cerebral electrostimulation of subconvulsive intensity has been employed as an experimental procedure at this hospital during the past year, and the indications for this technique in the treatment of mental disorders are being investigated. Preliminary tests in conjunction with Dr. H. Weil-Malherbe showed that electrostimulation, when applied to normoglycaemic patients under pentothal anaesthesia, caused a pronounced increase in the concentration of adrenaline-like substances in the blood during the passage of the current. The same current was therefore applied to a series of patients in hypoglycaemic coma to determine whether the effects obtained after injection of glutamic acid—and considered by Weil-Malherbe (1949) to be adrenergic in origin—could also be obtained after electrostimulation. The results of these investigations are presented in this report. The stimulating current employed for this purpose was of the “square wave” (interrupted galvanic) type, which was first applied as a cerebral stimulus by Leduc (1902) in his pioneer demonstration of electrical anaesthesia and sleep. More recently Liberson (1945) has investigated this type of current in relation to E.C.T., subsequently utilizing it in his Brief Stimulus Technique (Liberson, 1947, 1948). This latter technique is also under investigation here at the present time, the same stimulator being used for both convulsive and sub-convulsive therapies; the results obtained with the Brief Stimulus convulsive therapy will be presented in a later report.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1953 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bollea, G., and Manfredi, A., Lav. neuropsichiat., 1947, 1, 419.Google Scholar
Fleming, G. W. T. H., Golla, F. L., and Walter, W. G., Lancet, 1939, ii, 1353.Google Scholar
Golla, F., Walter, W. G., and Fleming, G. W. T. H., Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1940, 33, 261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, K. J., Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1950, 63, 102.Google Scholar
Hirschfeld, G. R., Presented before the New Jersey Neuropsychiatric Association at Lyons Hospital, 20 April, 1949.Google Scholar
Idem, Psychiat. Quart. Suppl., 1950, 24, 297.Google Scholar
Idem and Bell, J., Dis. Nerv. Syst., 1951, 12, 264.Google Scholar
Hoffman, F. H., and Wunsch, C. A., ibid., 1950, 11, 302.Google Scholar
Leduc, S., Arch. d'Electr. méd., 1902, 10, 617.Google Scholar
Liberson, W. T., Yale J. Biol. Med., 1945, 17, 571.Google Scholar
Idem, Dig. Neurol. Psychiat., 1947, 15, 72.Google Scholar
Idem, Amer. J. Psychiat., 1948, 105, 28.Google Scholar
Mayer-Gross, W., and Walker, J. W., Brit. J. Exp. Path., 1943, 26, 81.Google Scholar
Iidem, Nature, London, 1947, 160, 334.Google Scholar
Piette, Y., Les modifications motrices, respiratoires, cardiovasculares et glycémiques au cours die l'électrochoc, 1950. Editions Acta Medica Belgica, Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Riboli, B., Note Psichiat., Pesaro, 1948, 74, 249.Google Scholar
Idem, ibid., 1950, 76, 27.Google Scholar
Idem and Mancini, E., ibid., 1948, 74, 1.Google Scholar
Sargant, W., and Slater, E., An Introduction to Physical Methods of Treatment in Psychiatry, 1948. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Livingstone.Google Scholar
Smitt, J. W., and Wegener, C. F., Acta psychiat. neurol., 1944, 19, 529.Google Scholar
Weil-Malherbe, H., J. Ment. Sci., 1949, 95, 930.Google Scholar
Idem and Bone, A. D., ibid., 1952, in the Press.Google Scholar
Wilcox, P. H., “Shock Therapy,” Chap. 33 of vol. iii, Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry, ed. Spiegel, E. A., 1948. New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.