Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T01:34:50.693Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Asthma and Psychosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

Denis Leigh  and
John W. Lovett Doust
Denis Leigh
Affiliation:
Maudsley Hospital, London
John W. Lovett Doust
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Scattered throughout the literature on the psychiatric aspects of asthma are reports of cases where the psychiatric disturbance was severe enough to be described as “psychotic” (Reichmann, 1922; Hansen, 1929; St. Saxl, 1933; Oberndorf, 1935). The term “psychotic” was used in the sense that the psychiatric diagnosis was either that of manic-depressive psychosis, schizophrenia, or paranoid psychosis. It has been postulated, moreover, that the co-existence of a psychosis and attacks of asthma was no chance relationship, and that there was an intimate link between the psychosis and the somatic disturbance. This relationship, it has been said, is of considerable theoretical significance. Appel and Rosen (1950), for example, consider that “there is a reciprocal relationship between the so-called physical manifestations of psychosomatic illness and the psychological manifestations of psychiatric illness.” This concept is also held to apply in disorders other than asthma—in ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and in certain skin disorders. The treatment of such disorders psycho-therapeutically is said to result at times in an alleviation of the physical disorder, but the concomitant development of a psychotic reaction (Appel and Rosen, 1950; Lindemann, 1950). During the past three years an investigation of patients suffering from asthmatic attacks has been in progress, and the opportunity has arisen to examine these points on a fairly large case material. The present paper reports an attempt to investigate scientifically some aspects of the relationship between asthma and psychosis.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 99 , Issue 416 , July 1953 , pp. 489 - 496
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1953 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Appel, J., and Rosen, S. R., Psychosomat. Med., 1950, 12, 236.Google Scholar
Finesinger, J. E., Amer. J. Psychiat., 1948, 105, 187.Google Scholar
Hansen, K., Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1929, 22, 789.Google Scholar
Leavitt, H. C., Psychosomat. Med., 1943, 5, 39.Google Scholar
Lindemann, E., A.R.N.M.D., 1950, xxix, 706.Google Scholar
Lovett Doust, J. W., Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1951, 44, 347.Google Scholar
Idem, J. Ment. Sci., 1952, 98, 143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idem, Brit. J. Soc. Med., 1952, 6, 49.Google Scholar
Idem and Leigh, D., Psychosomat. Med., 1952—to appear.Google Scholar
MacInnis, K. B., J. Allergy, 1936, 8, 73.Google Scholar
Oberndorf, C. P., New York State J. Med., 1935, 35, 41.Google Scholar
Ray, G. B., Johnson, J. R., and Ray, L. H., Amer. J. Physiol., 1946, 147, 636.Google Scholar
Reichmann, F., Med. Klin., 1922, 18, 1066.Google Scholar
Saxl, S., Wien. klin. Woch., 1933, 46, 1515.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.