TWO DAY CYCLES OF ALTERNATING GOOD AND BAD BEHAVIOR IN PSYCHOTIC PATIENTS

Abstract

The first report that I have found of a case in which there were two or three day behavior cycles was made by Dömling,¹of Würzburg, Bavaria, and published posthumously in 1804. A woman aged 50 had been perfectly healthy up to her eighteenth year. Spells of dizziness which appeared at this time were treated with frequent bloodletting. She was married at the age of 21, and several pregnancies followed in rapid succession, with complications which were also treated with bloodletting. At the age of 33 blood was let from a vein under the tongue to relieve a severe toothache. The resulting bleeding could not be stopped for a long time, and, owing to the great loss of blood, the patient became weak and depressed. Shortly afterward, cycles of two day duration made their appearance. On one day the patient was gay, and on the next she was depressed;