HISTOPATHOLOGIC CHANGES IN THE BRAIN FOLLOWING EXPERIMENTAL INJECTIONS OF METRAZOL

Abstract

With the introduction of insulin and metrazol treatment of dementia praecox, the question arose whether organic changes in the central nervous system are produced by these new methods. In a previous paper¹ it was reported that convulsive doses of insulin injected into rabbits were followed by irreparable damage to the central nervous system if the total number of units of insulin injected per kilogram of body weight was larger than 60 (corresponding approximately to a total of 1,800 units for a patient weighing 60 Kg.). Reports in the literature of histopathologic studies of the brain following injections of metrazol are not numerous. De Morsier, Georgi and Rutishauser² injected a convulsive dose of metrazol into 1 rabbit on nine different days. They did not observe any histopathologic changes in the brain. Another rabbit was killed by the injection of one massive dose of metrazol and showed only marked hyperemia