The Value of Continuous Narcosis in the Treatment of Mental Disorder

Abstract

There does not appear in the literature any method of treatment to which the term “prolonged narcosis” can be applied prior to the year 1897, when Macleod (47, 48) published his first article on the bromide sleep treatment. The Hippocratic “Aphorisms” (126) mention that immoderate sleep is bad for the patient, but Celsus (129) quotes Asclepiades as being in favour of procuring sleep, and remarks that some insane patients recover if sleep is obtained, and Paulus Aegineta (128) observes that sleep produces oblivion of mental suffering and rectifies the distracted powers of reason. Aretaeus (127) in discussing satyriasis mentions “very protracted sleep” as the proper cure for the condition”.