Fourteenth annual reports for 1872 / Sussex County Lunatic Asylum, Haywards Heath.

  • Sussex County Lunatic Asylum (Haywards Heath, England)
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fourteenth annual reports for 1872 / Sussex County Lunatic Asylum, Haywards Heath. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    96/140 (page 46)
    Case 2. Female. For upwards of twTenty years this patient has been subject to Migraine, and during the last few years the paroxysms, which were extremely severe— in fact, the worst we ever saw—recurred every eight or ten days, and generally lasted from twenty-four to thirty-six hours, or even longer. Half-grain doses of the Indian Hemp were ordered night and morning, and after having been persevered in for five or six weeks great improvement followed, the attacks being very much slighter, and di¬ minished in frequency to once a month. The dose was gradually increased to one grain, and now the headaches are still less severe and frequent, sometimes scarcely deserving the name of “ sick-headache.” Here, taking into consideration the duration of the disease, a cure could scarcely be hoped for; but after the drug had been taken for a few weeks a most marked amelioration was apparent. Moreover, this patient was an inveterate tea and coffee drinker, and could by no means be persuaded to give up the use of these wretched stimulants; otherwuse, there is little doubt that still greater relief might have been obtained. In this case there was vomiting with every paroxysm, and as usual the violence of the attack abated gradually after the stomach had ejected its contents. It might be argued from this that emetics would be useful, but direct experiment demon¬ strates that this is not often the result, and, indeed, can hardly be expected when we remember that the vomiting “merely indicates the lowest point of nervous depression.” Almost every kind of treatment had been tried with this patient, and although many of the remedies had been persevered with for months and months, not the slightest benefit ever accrued. Case 3. Female. In this case the seizures recurred about five times a month, but the disease could scarcely be called severe, as the attacks were comparatively slight. They were reduced to once a month by one-third grain doses of the extract. Case 4. Female. From the notes furnished us here, it would seem that the attacks were not diminished in fre¬ quency ; but the patient admits not having taken the medicine regularly, though she states that a double