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Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. MENTAL PATIENTS It Ijas been very gratifying to see the number of young mental patients cured by the shock method insulin, metrazol and electric. This treat-i'tVsG&Zyn treat-i'tVsG&Zyn ment has been very :-. "J successful in what is J called recent cases; i that is, the syn-.p- toms have been pres- yl ent for not more J x J than a year. It K comes, then, as a pleasant surprise to .,, 1 learn that the shock L"- ' treatment is suc- . ..: .jSiaLi cessful in many old- Dr. Barton er Pents In the American Journal of Psychiatry, Dr. V. L. Evans reports the results obtained by bringing on convulsions in people who are elderly and often in poor physical condition. There were 50 patients with mental or behavior disabilities dis-abilities treated with electric and metrazol shock. Of these patients 17 were over 60 and 5 over 70 years of age. No patient was refused re-fused convulsive shock treatment because be-cause of the physical risks involved. Some of the patients possessed physical phys-ical abnormalities besides being older old-er than most cases treated by this I method. Seven were greatly undernourished. under-nourished. Four were exhausted from excitement and physical overactivity overactiv-ity at the time the treatment was started. Most of the cases had failed to respond to other methods of treatment treat-ment and it seemed almost certain that there was no chance of recovery recov-ery unless some severe or drastic treatment was given. Of the 50 patients treated, 21 recovered, re-covered, 19 improved and 10 were unimproved. When we remember the age, the physical condition, the length of time these cases had been afflicted, and the fact that all had reserved the usual methods of treatment without benefit, the results of the shock treatment treat-ment must be considered remarkable. remark-able. Dr. Evans' conclusion is that, although al-though the risks seem to be great, the complications are remarkably low. |