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Serum Magnesium, Diagnosis, ECT and Season

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. W. P. Carney
Affiliation:
Blackpool and Fylde Hospital Group and Lancaster Moor Hospital
B. F. Sheffield
Affiliation:
Blackpool and Fylde Hospital Group
J. Sebastian
Affiliation:
Blackpool and Fylde Hospital Group

Extract

Mild alterations in serum magnesium are said to be symptomless (D. N. S. Kerr in Cecil and Loeb, 1971). Cade (1964) reported high levels in depression but Frizel et al. (1969) found low values restored to normal with clinical recovery. Raised serum magnesium concentrations have been reported in manic patients (Nielson, 1964; Goodwin, Murphy and Bunney, 1968) and schizophrenics (Cade, 1964). These results suggested that serum magnesium had predictive value in the treatment of psychiatric patients, so we estimated pre- and post-treatment serum magnesium concentrations in a number of patients and investigated their relationships with diagnosis and clinical course.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1973 

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References

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