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Anna O. Had a Severe Depressive Illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Harold Merskey
Harold Merskey*
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario, London Psychiatric Hospital, 850 Highbury Avenue, PO Box 2532, Terminal A, London, Ontario N6A 4H1, Canada
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

The information available on the illness of Anna 0. is reviewed together with follow-up data from the literature. It is concluded that the diagnosis of a severe depressive illness with depressive delusions is well justified. Hysterical symptoms which appeared can be understood as part of the depressive state modified by the expectations of the period and by the intervention of physicians. The illness was a very protracted one, with fluctuations or exacerbations lasting from 1880 to 1887, and was complicated by dependence upon morphine and chloral hydrate. However, by 1888, the patient appears to have made a considerable recovery, and she went on to lead an effective and fruitful life, demonstrating high intelligence and the resilience of the cyclothymic temperament.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 161 , Issue 2 , August 1992 , pp. 185 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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