Psychotherapy Part 64

_The Suggestive Element_.--a.n.a.lysis shows the real course of the trouble in these cases. The sufferer is usually following a sedentary occupation, not getting much exercise or diversion and p.r.o.ne to introspection. Many symptoms of themselves of no importance have been emphasized by concentration of attention on them. Especially is this true of any heart irregularity. The patient has dreaded for some time lest the feeling of pressure in the precordia and of discomfort in the heart might not sometime interfere with him in the midst of his teaching or preaching duties. Some day when he is feeling much worse than usual, in the midst of his work, there comes over him the feeling that now his intellect is going to stop action because there is something the matter with him. The sudden concentration of his attention on this with the fear of the consequences and the uncomfortable feeling that he will not be able to go on with his flow of ideas, cuts off the thread of what he is thinking about and puts but one single object before him--this possibility of failure of mental action. Usually the first attack is only such an interruption as is thus indicated. The fear of subsequent attacks, the worry over what has happened, the dread that some serious mental affection or nervous disease is at work emphasizes introspection and subsequent attacks are even more likely to be serious, and especially to last longer than the first.

The more the cases are studied the more the conclusion comes that in many of these instances it is nothing more than auto-suggestion that is responsible for the mental lapse. It is true that some physical condition may be the occasion, though the mental state is the active immediate cause. Suddenly concentrated attention on the dread of mental interruption inhibits mental action and what was dreaded follows almost necessarily. It is a sort of auto-hypnotism in which the patient's train of thought is interrupted by a momentary or longer hypnotic state the causes of which can be traced. Even when there is a real organic lesion of the heart, the lapses of memory and even of reasoning power that occasionally occur, have often seemed to me to be due rather to the patient's dread than to any real physical condition.

I cannot think that there is a sufficient interruption of the cerebral circulation, even though only for a moment, to cause such a lapse. It is a question of nerve interferences rather than of blood supply. If the blood were diverted, even though only for a moment, or if there was a stoppage, the consequences would be more serious and more lasting than they are.

What evidently happens is some disturbance of neurotic connections within the brain brought on by sudden dread or emotion. The will has lost control or has seriously disturbed the conducting apparatus. The best proof that this is what happens and that it is not the result of organic change is found in the fact that when the physical occasion, that is, the digestive disturbance or the heart palpitation which is the initial factor in these states, is relieved, the attacks do not take place. Patients in whom they have occurred even for years cease to have them. This improvement does not begin, however, until their solicitude over their condition has been lessened by a confident declaration to them that they are suffering from merely functional and local reflex conditions apart from the brain itself. Usually it needs to be made clear {540} to them, too, that their anxiety in the matter means much more for the continuance of the attacks than any physical condition.

Almost invariably patients somewhat resent this suggestion. Their response to this explanation of their ailment usually is that the attacks come on them when they are not particularly expecting them and that there is first some physical symptom which might readily be taken for a sort of aura to a genuine epileptic attack and then the attack itself comes on. It is this preceding symptom, pain or discomfort, or whatever else it may be, that provokes the suggestive element and brings about the state of quasi-hypnosis, which is the main part of their attack.

Neurotic Syncopal Attacks.--Some of the cases of pseudo-epilepsy are very mild, though if the word epilepsy has been mentioned there naturally arises a feeling of dread in patient and friends with consequent unfavorable suggestion. A type not infrequently seen has for its main symptom a period, usually of but short duration, in which there is an intense tired feeling so that even the eyelids droop and require effort to lift them. During such attacks the respirations may slow down to fifteen or below, though usually the pulse is inclined to be rapid. The feeling of fatigue is almost entirely subjective, in the sense that, if patients are required to do something, they are able to accomplish it by a little urging, though a moment before they were sure that they could not. Such attacks are invariably functional, have no organic basis and do not deserve the name of epilepsy. If called hysterics this will cause the patient, who is often a woman, to rouse herself and so gradually overcome them. They are really a loss of confidence in one's power to do things and a pa.s.sing astasia-abasia.

The use of the word hysterics may cause the patient to lose the sympathy of her friends, though she may need it; for often there is an underlying pathological condition not in the nervous but in the somatic system. Sometimes the patients are anemic, sometimes they have an abortive form of Graves' disease, and sometimes they are low in nutrition.

These conditions give the indication for treatment. What is needed is, of course, improvement of the general condition, but, above all, a restoration of the patient's confidence in herself. Once it is made clear to her that the attacks are largely subjective, that is, are due to a feeling of prostration because of the fear that she is unable to do something, then the intervals between the attacks will gradually grow longer. It is important that long hours of sleep should be advised with plenty of fresh air, and that whatever disturbances of the digestive system are present should be carefully treated.

Pseudo-Epilepsy and the Menopause.--A number of these cases of pseudo-epilepsy occur at the menopause. They seem particularly likely to occur in women who have not much to occupy themselves with.

Childless women who have no cares and enjoy every luxury sometimes seem to have these pseudo-epileptic attacks as equivalents for the flus.h.i.+ngs of the ordinary menopause. During "a rush of blood to the head" they lose control of themselves. Occasionally mothers who have two or three daughters and who get their menopause late in life, that is, well after fifty, are especially likely to suffer in the same way.

The solicitude of those near them seems to eliminate some of their power of inhibition and makes them think overmuch of themselves. If then they keep much at home, as women at this time are p.r.o.ne to do, have few {541} diversions of mind, little fresh air and exercise, there is an acc.u.mulation of unused nervous energy which dissipates itself in explosive attacks very like epilepsy. It is with regard to these that the term hystero-epilepsy almost seems justified. Just as soon as occupation and diversion of mind and relaxation of the solicitude of friends for them is secured they begin to get better.

The differential diagnosis of these cases is made from the absence of certain of the pathognomic signs of true epilepsy. The tongue is not bitten, involuntary urination does not take place, and when the patient falls she does not hurt herself as a rule, though occasionally the fall may result in accidental abrasions or bruises, but these are quite trivial. If stress is laid upon the fact before these patients that they do not present any or all of the symptoms of epilepsy, some of them are likely to occur a little later. Slight abrasions on the tongue will be noted and the sputum will become a little b.l.o.o.d.y. Even very cleanly women will sometimes wet themselves. It is not a deliberate attempt at deception, but their curious psycho-neurotic condition causes suggestion to act upon them. Their attacks are really auto-hypnotic and during these the remarks made by the physician occur as suggestions and then are accomplished. If the suggestions in this matter have been carelessly made by previous physicians the attacks will so closely simulate true epilepsy that it will often be almost impossible to differentiate them with a.s.surance.

In the preliminary diagnosis of these cases, as well as of all other cases of pseudo-epilepsy, we must, as far as possible, avoid the use of the word epilepsy, even of hystero-epilepsy. The unfavorable suggestion attached to such terms will have the worst possible effect.

There is no need to fear that the patient will be any less taken care of, if the disease is called by some other name, for instance, neurotic paroxysms or nervous attacks.

Cure by Suggestion.--Such patients are often cured by remedial measures of one kind or another that are administered with the confident declaration that they will get well. A number of cases of epilepsy which were really of this character have been reported cured by Eddyism. A number also have been very favorably influenced by osteopathic treatment. Needless to say, the reports of such cured cases have not been diminished in significance by the publicity bureaus of these various cults. Mental healing has relieved a number more. Usually this relief has been afforded these cases after they had tried regular physicians who had treated them in the ordinary way with bromides, without doing anything more than causing them to miss a few attacks for a temporary period of relief, if even that, giving them bromism and further increasing their solicitude about themselves by unconsciously emphasizing their ideas as to how serious epilepsy can be. The cures of these cases are not due to the various treatments to which the patients proclaim their debt of grat.i.tude, but to the confident a.s.surance given them that their condition is not serious, and will be cured. After a.n.a.lysis of their attacks has shown them to be neurotic and not genuinely epileptic, the regular medical pract.i.tioner can readily do as much and even more; for psychotherapy has much more to do in affording relief in these cases than any other form of treatment. It must be applied with confidence and the results are often most favorable.

{542}

CHAPTER VI

PARALYSIS AGITANS

This is a chronic affection of the nervous system having for its most characteristic symptom a tremor, but with marked muscular rigidity and weakness. It is much more common in men than in women, in almost the reverse proportion of Graves' disease. It is usually a disease of the old, but may occur in early middle life and has been known to develop even early in the twenties. In the old days when malaria was a common diagnosis for many different conditions, paralysis agitans apparently followed malaria so often that there was thought to be some connection between the two diseases. The more we have learned of malaria the less likely this seems to be. Continuous exposure to cold for long periods and to dampness during the daily occupation for years, or repeated severe wettings, have been considered as causative elements. None of these physical factors, however, has been as directly connected with the occurrence of the affection as various emotional conditions, and the thought is suggested that even in cases of severe exposure the worry and fright and solicitude incident to the fear in an elderly person that this exposure will have serious consequences, is an important etiological element.

Psychic Factors.--_Fright_.--Practically all the authorities agree that mental conditions are prominent factors in the production of the disease. Serious business cares and worries and anxieties have often long preceded its development. Fright is mentioned by nearly all those who write on the subject as at least an occasion for the development of paralysis agitans if not a cause. One of my own most interesting cases occurred in the sheriff of a county of the Southwest who had earned for himself the deep enmity of an Indian by arresting him. Not long afterwards one Sunday morning when the sheriff quite unarmed came round a corner he found the Indian just in front of him wildly drunk and armed with a rifle. At once the rifle went to the Indian's shoulder, but he did not want to kill his man without having his revenge by torturing him, so he did not pull the trigger, but announced to him in vigorous though broken English that he had him now and was going to kill him. The sheriff tried to parley and for a moment the Indian permitted him to do so, apparently in order to prolong the agony. They were not more than two yards apart at the beginning, and the sheriff took his only chance and jumped and knocked the gun up. It went off just as he did so, the bullet singeing his hair. He succeeded in arresting the Indian and throwing him into jail, but the next day a tremor developed in the arm which had grasped the rifle. This spread and finally became typical of paralysis agitans. He was a man only slightly past fifty and there had been no preliminary symptoms.

Mental Control of Symptoms.--Many similar cases following fright or vehement emotion have been reported, so that it is easy to understand the feeling that the affection has a large psychic element in it, though evidently from its persistency and its continued development, there is some underlying pathological condition. The tremor may be controlled in voluntary {543} movements, while emotion exaggerates it.

There is no doubt, however, that concentration of will and the definite effort to control the symptoms enables the patient to rid himself of them to a great degree for a time at least. It has been noted frequently that when a consultant physician is called the patient will be better for the day of the consultation than he had been for months before. The visits of particular friends will often arouse a sufferer to such efforts as greatly lessen his rigidity, decrease his tremor and make him capable of getting around better than before. The state of mental depression that commonly develops in these cases exaggerates the symptoms, adds neurotic and even physical conditions that develop from lack of exercise and air, and makes the patient's general state much worse than it would otherwise be.

Pathology.--Our scanty but growing knowledge of the pathology of paralysis agitans makes it clear that the disease is, in typical cases, probably due to an overgrowth of connective tissue, the neuroglia cells, in the central nervous system. Just what causes this overgrowth of connective tissue is not clear. It is an exaggeration of a normal senile process. Apparently one of the processes of age in man is a decadence of the vitality of important higher tissues with a corresponding increase of vitality in the lower or connective tissues.

When Flourens declared at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences that such an overgrowth of connective tissue was natural with advancing years, he added that this probably accounted for the slowness with which older men come to conclusions. The old members of the Academy did not accept this new-fangled doctrine with equanimity.

They were inclined to think that their conservatism and deliberateness were due to greater poise of intellect.

There seems to be no doubt that at least a comparative overgrowth of connective tissue is characteristic of the brain in advancing years.

In some people this occurs to a greater extent and is more precocious than in others. Just what causes are responsible for individual differences we do not know. Paralysis agitans is seen often in those who have worked hard most of their lives, but, on the other hand, may occur in those who have lived sedentary lives, and in people of all occupations. Over-indulgence in alcohol, though this is often thought to predispose to the disappearance of the parenchyma of organs and to the overgrowth of connective tissue, does not seem to have any place in the etiology of this affection. Its occurrence is a part of that mystery by which the equilibrium of different kinds of cells in the body is maintained or diminished. In a mild way paralysis agitans represents such a change in the central nervous system.

Mental Influences.--With an overgrowth of connective tissue as the pathology of the disease there would seem to be no question of any relief of its symptoms or any benefit to be derived from psychotherapy. Anyone who has much to do with cases of paralysis agitans, however, knows that they are extremely susceptible to mental influences. Whenever there is anything that interests them, any business that they feel they must do, any special event that they look forward to, they will for days at a time be so much improved in general symptoms as to be greatly encouraged themselves and make their friends feel hopeful with regard to them. When they give in to their condition, however, and make no special effort at self-control and stimulation their symptoms increase very much. Their rigidity particularly increases, their {544} tremor becomes more marked and various inconveniences a.s.sociated with these two cardinal symptoms are emphasized.

Methods of Treatment.--_The Vibrating Chair_.--It is interesting to recall some of the forms of treatment which have been reported as beneficial in paralysis agitans, because they ill.u.s.trate how much the influence of the patient's mind has over his bodily condition and how much the interest aroused in any new and particularly in any unusual form of treatment has in mitigating symptoms and how often it seems to bring about remissions in the progress of the disease. Twenty years ago Charcot suggested the use of a mechanically vibrating arm-chair.

He had noticed that patients who travelled by rail seemed to have their symptoms improved for the time at least by the shaking up in the train. This treatment undoubtedly made patients much less rigid and much less tremulous. The improvement lasted sometimes for hours and sometimes for days. It was tried rather extensively and everywhere with reported good results, when first tried at least. After a time it was found that it failed to have the desired effect. Apparently whatever therapeutic value it had was due to the interest aroused in the patient's mind and the consequent effort that was made to control his muscles.

_The Suspension Treatment_.--When the method of treatment by suspension became popular for cases of locomotor ataxia, the idea came to try the same thing for paralysis agitans. Accordingly suspension apparatuses of many kinds were used with reported good results.

Patients were suspended by the neck for some minutes and some of them got used to the treatment and could stand it for a prolonged period.

The effect was always a distinct mitigation of symptoms. The rigidity particularly became much less marked, but the tremor also was lessened and besides certain secondary symptoms were bettered. Constipation was improved, partly because patients were more cheerful, ate more heartily and, above all, were willing to make some effort in order to get out regularly into the air. There was a variety in life, different from the solitary sitting at home into which these patients so often drift. Sleep was better at night and the subjective sensations of heat and cold were lessened. Patients were encouraged to think of improvement and used all their available nervous energy. In the same way when overstretching of the spinal cord by forcibly bending of the body at the hips was tried with reported success in tabes it was also applied to paralysis agitans with similar improvement of symptoms.

Both methods of treatment have gone out for both these affections and evidently their observed therapeutic efficiency at first was entirely due to their effect upon the mind.

_Psychic Elements and Other Remedies_.--When organo-therapeutics became the fad paralysis agitans was treated also by this method. Some cases were treated with reported good results by thyroid. Later when the parathyroids attracted attention they were administered with reported good success in even very severe cases. I think that there is a report of some cases of paralysis agitans being improved by injections of diphtheria serum. In other words, anything that was given to a patient with the promise that he would be better after it and that produced a definite effect upon his mind was likely to do him temporary good. If the remedy had some special theory behind it, if there was a story of some new scientific significance for the material employed or the method of giving it, then this improvement was sure to take place. {545} In the drug treatment of the disease the same principles applied. Earlier, when nitrate of silver was the main recourse for organic nervous diseases, cases were reported improved by its administration. When the alterative properties of a.r.s.enic became a therapeutic fad this produced good effects. Atropin had for some time a reputation of relieving patient's symptoms. After a time all of them ceased to be used to any extent.

_The Frenkel Method_.--In recent years the application of the Frenkel directed movement method, modified somewhat from its application in tabes, has attracted attention in the therapeutics of paralysis agitans. It is interesting to note how often a mode of treatment that has been applied successfully to one of these diseases has also proved successful with the other. The two diseases are, of course, very different in etiology and pathology; but have one thing in common. The control over muscles has been lost to some degree in both cases in the progress of the disease, and a special effort of attention is required on the part of the patient in order to regulate movement. Anything that will arouse the patient to make this special effort will relieve the symptoms for a while and in tabes may bring about a lasting improvement, because the habit becomes easier after a time, though apparently this does not occur in paralysis agitans, except perhaps in the younger patients. It might very well be expected, then, that Frenkel's method in many cases would do good in paralysis agitans and it has proved to be another adjunct in the treatment of the affection.

It must be used with great care not to exhaust the patient, but this is true also in tabes. The real source of its therapeutic quality seems to be the patient's interest in it and if this cannot be aroused it usually fails to do good. The success of these various mechanical methods makes it easy to understand why these patients often improve for a time under osteopathic treatment.

_Psychotherapy_.--It is clear, then, that the most important aid for these cases is the arousing of mental interest in some form of treatment that promises to be of benefit to them. New forms of treatment cannot always be invented and mental occupation must be secured by interest in other things. Patients suffering from paralysis agitans are p.r.o.ne to allow themselves to give up efforts to do things in which their interest would be aroused. They must be encouraged to do many things. Carriage riding, automobiling, train excursions, because of the effort required to resist vibration, are all helpful.

They must not be allowed to drift into vacuous habits in which they make no effort for themselves. They can thus be made much more comfortable and most of their symptoms can be relieved to a marked degree. This requires constant attention and ever-renewed efforts to arouse the patient's mind and to have him make such efforts as will overcome rigidity and control the tremor to some extent; but with care an amelioration of the condition can always be brought about and can be maintained, at least to the extent of making the patient much more comfortable than would otherwise be the case.

{546}

CHAPTER VII

HEADACHE

In spite of the improvement in the general health of the community, due to more hygienic living, more healthy food and better ventilation, headache, instead of decreasing, has increased to a great degree. Any number of headache cures are advertised in the daily papers, in the street cars, on the signboards, even in medical journals, and besides these nearly every druggist has his own special preparation for headache, so it would seem as though literally many millions of doses of these headache cures must be taken every week. It would seem as though there must be some special unhygienic factor at work to produce headaches at a time when all other pathological conditions are being reduced in number and severity.

A study of the patients who are especially affected by headache seems to furnish evidence as to the special factor that has led to the increase of the affection. It occurs much more frequently in women than in men. It is complained of particularly by those who have less regular occupation, and the notable increase has come with the opportunity for leisure on the part of large numbers of the community due to the growth of wealth.

A feeling of discomfort in the head to which much attention is paid will become such a painful condition as to deserve the name of ache, if it develops in those who have no serious occupation in life and no interests that demand peremptory attention. With the noise of many children around them in the olden times women suffered comparatively little from headaches. Most of our grandmothers scarcely knew what it was to have a headache. Now most business men are likely to say the same thing. Very rarely do they suffer from headache. When they do, there is some specific reason and when this is removed the headache disappears. There are many women of leisure who have regular headaches for which they must have some remedy at hand or the pain becomes intolerable, but there are few women strenuously occupied with business affairs or with interests in which their attention is absorbed who find themselves under any such necessity.

It is evident that certain conditions predispose to headache. The princ.i.p.al of these is having sufficient time to advert to certain uncomfortable feelings in or around the head. Few people who stop to think of what their head feelings are but will find there is some unusual sensation somewhere in or outside the head which if dwelt upon becomes emphasized into an ache. If the mind can be diverted it disappears. If there has been some injury of the head or some pathological conditions set up by congestion or anemia, the feelings may become emphasized and occupy the center of attention, and even after the injury has disappeared or the pathological condition been ameliorated some sensations remain which with advertence produce achy feelings of discomfort. This is the history of a great deal of the increase of headache in our time. There are, of course, real headaches due to definite pathological conditions, but the great majority of headaches complained of {547} are the result of over-attention to certain sensations, some of them normal, some of them only slightly abnormal, which are emphasized by concentration of attention on them until they become a torment.

Two main cla.s.ses of headaches come to the physician for treatment. One cla.s.s is seen in patients who suffer from real and even acute pain that cannot be distracted by diversion of mind, that is usually worse when they try to sleep, as toothache is, and is evidently due to definite physical disturbance. In the second cla.s.s are the many queer feelings about the head called headaches, though the patient suffers rather from annoyance than from pain. It is said that the Chinese in olden times put criminals to a lingering death by fastening them in such a way that a drop of water fell every minute on their heads. It was impossible to avoid the falling drop, and its constant recurrence became an awful torture. Any feeling that engrosses consciousness will be followed by the same sense of torment. The constant exercise of function of any nerve without rest is of itself physically disturbing to a serious degree. This must be realized with regard to many forms of headache which, though trivial in origin, are the source of bitter complaint.