The Practice of Medicine in a Neuropsychiatric Hospital

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present the distinctive features of medical practice in a neuropsychiatric hospital as I have observed them during the past 12 years. While such observations have revealed many significant peculiarities and differences in medical practice in relation to the physically ill psychotic patient, they have also revealed that the well-established fundamentals of diagnosis and treatment remain unaltered. The special characteristics of medical practice in a neuropsychiatric hospital fall into two categories. First, it must be recognized that there are both disorders which are peculiar to the psychotic patient, such as the exhaustion syndrome of psychotics and the irreversible insulin coma reaction as a result of insulin coma therapy, and disorders which are rarely seen in the psychotic patient, such as acute bronchial asthma, hay fever, and rheumatoid arthritis. The second distinctive trait of medical practice in a neuropsychiatric hospital has to do with the