TREATING THE INSANE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25365, 25 October 1943, Page 4

TREATING THE INSANE

USE OF NEW METHODS SOME REMARKABLE RESULTS (Special) WELLINGTON, Oct. 23. Relatives of New Zealand mental hospital patients who were thought to be hopelessly insane have been discovering in some cases surprising and even dramatic improvements in the patients. People who have been inmates of mental hospitals for years, have been returned to homes and work. The hospitals had always been able to discharge as cured or improved a large proportion of the patients admitted. but only in the last few years have they been able to discharge inmates of such long standing or who had sunk so far from the normal mental conditions.

These cures and partial cures have been the result of the hospital staffs adopting improvements in the treatment of mental disorders which have been initiated overseas and have followed rapidly one after another. They include the insulin coma treatment, which was originated 11 years ago in Vienna, and the newer shock therapy, which consists of the administration of a drug or an electric current. Most remarkable of all has been the performing by a distinguished visiting neuro-surgeon on two Porirua Hospital patients of surgical operations that have rescued them from complete insanity. The operations were performed by Lieutenant-commander W. J. Gardiner, of the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio. The patients were women aged 62 and 65, who were pitiably unhappy and showed no signs of spontaneous recovery. Both operations were performed in September, 1942, The elder, who had been a mental hospital patient since 1936, began to show improvement within a few days, and last January was discharged. The younger woman, who had been a mental hospital patient since 1933, has not recovered sufficiently to be discharged, but her symptoms have been ameliorated very considerably, and she now works in the hospital and is more emotionally composed. As with the coma and shock methods, the treatment does not end with the operation, and there has to be a re-educa-tion of the patient by the nurses.