MALARIA A CURE FOR INSANITY

Evening Star, Issue 19062, 3 October 1925, Page 3

MALARIA A CURE FOR INSANITY

In his fifteenth annual report of the ■vyork carried on in the laboratory in connection with the Scottish Western Asylums’ Research Institute, 10 Claythorn road, Glasgow, Dr William Whitelaw, dealing with the treatment of general paralysis of the insane, says lie and his co-investigators have fried tho inoculation of the patient with blood from a case of malaria, with the intention of producing malaria in the patient. On each occasion, however, tho inoculation was unsuccessful in so far as the patient did not develop malaria, A new method is being tried at present In the treatment of general paralysis by “protein stock.’’ A foreign substance is introduced into the blood of the patient, and in about half an hour’s time tho patient develops rigor and a high tcmpQratnro. Tho temperature lasts for an hour or two, and then returns to normal, and all the effects pass off in tho matter of two or throe hours. This reaction boars a very closu resemblance to an attack of malaria. Various medical officers Jiavo boon examining some cases of insanity from the point of view of chronic infection, especially chronic intestinal infection, which might have some relation to the cause of mental illness. Various methods have been experimented with unsuccessfully. Dr Whitelaw points out that the only positive evidence they have is that infecting organisms are certainly present in a number of mental patients.