Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-05T23:54:22.416Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Acute Confusional Insanity and Delirium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

Edward S. Stern
Edward S. Stern*
Affiliation:
Central Hospital, Hatton, Warwick
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This condition, in which severe confusion, disorientation, and restlessness are the principal features, appears to have been first clearly described by Bell (1845), who noted that about 2½ per cent. of the patients admitted to his asylum showed a particular syndrome: they were normal people who were admitted after about a week's acute illness; their appearance and speech suggested fever and delirium like a typhoid state; understanding was limited; they were apprehensive, with distressing but confused delusions; they disliked and suspected their food, and were not sensible enough to be thirsty; they tried to get out of bed, were sometimes violent, and struggled strongly when held. The course of the illness was rapidly downhill, but about a quarter of the patients suddenly made a complete and permanent recovery at the end of two to three weeks, the remainder dying in the same time. There were no specific post-mortem findings.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 90 , Issue 380 , July 1944 , pp. 761 - 766
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1944 

References

Bell, L. V. (1849), Amer. J. Insan., 6, 97.Google Scholar
Bleuler, E. (1923), Text-book of Psychiatry, trans. Brill, A. A. London.Google Scholar
Chaslin, P. (1895), Progr. Méd., 1, 129.Google Scholar
Curran, D. (1934), Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 27, 1713.Google Scholar
Idem (1937), Lancet, ii, 873.Google Scholar
Ewen, J. H. (1933), Handbook of Psychiatry. London.Google Scholar
Henderson, D. K., and Gillespie, R. D. (1936), Text-book of Psychiatry, 4th edition. London.Google Scholar
Kraines, S. H. (1934), Am. J. Psychiat., 91, 29.Google Scholar
Lemos, M. (1928), Rev. Neurol., 11, 870.Google Scholar
Parfitt, D. N. (1932), Lancet, ii, 1108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlov, I. P. (1927), Conditioned Reflexes, trans. v. Anrep, G. London.Google Scholar
Idem (1941), Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes, 2, trans. Horsley Gantt, W. London.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.