ABNORMALITIES OF BRAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25282, 6 September 1947, Page 8

ABNORMALITIES OF BRAIN

MACHINE to record RHYTHMS DIVERGENT VIEWS ON EFFICIENCY From Our Own Reporter DUNEDIN, September 5. A machine called an electroencephalograph, used abroad by psychiatrists in testing brain abnormalities, is in the Dunedin Hospital, but psychiatrists are far from being unanimous in their opinions of its efficiency. The machine has not been installed in psychiatric clinics or mental hospitals. The instrument records various types of “waves” or brain rhythms, but it is on the interpretation and the readings of the traced patterns that the experts are in disagreement. The claims made overseas for the machine are that the recordings of various types of abnormalities of the brain show regular deviations from the tracings left by normal brains; yet cases have been found in New Zealand where the recording of epileptics have shown normal rhythm. An expert today quoted a learned professor as saying that basically the theory of the electroencephalograph was wrong. “You can get any results from a recording,” he said, “and there is a wide divergence of opinion on the readings. Some of us are not convinced that the graph reads the rhythms correctly. The machine is only in the experimental stage. If it were a precision instrument, the Mental Hospitals Department and practising psychiatrists would quickly obtain and use it.” The electrical shock treatment for cure of insanity was commonplace, the expert said, with the best results being obtained in depressive cases. Given with a properly trained nursing staff, the dangers of the treatment were negligible. The success depended not so much on the medical man but on having a good team trained in the technique. The treatment was more therapeutic than medical. Human elements entered largely into the psychiatric treatment of returned servicemen, said the expert. The main concerns of the men were to have a home and a good job. Each man had to be studied sympathetically, and the assistance given by the Pensions Department and the Rehabilitation Department had been wonderful, and had contributed to the recovery of many men,