During the 17th century, comas started to be looked into more. In this period of time trauma was known as the main cause along with fever, apoplexy, and stroke which can be found in Nicolaas Tulp's Observationes Medicae. Observation of patient suffering from a coma was basic and mainly consisted of the inspection of the pulse, urine, feces, sputum, and pus. Little observations on arousal to sensory stimuli, movements, and breathing were described, however, some did exist and was being constantly tested. Jakob Wepfer had studied the pulse of patients in comas in earlier years. His studies helped later doctors and scientists study the human body in a coma. Treatments were determined by studies at that time along with information from older texts.
There is high risk of death and poor neurological function with unconscious survivors in out of hospital cardiac arrest. Trails were undertaken with the patients after awakening from cardiac arrest, which was compared with Ther...
Dr. Thomas Kirkbride was born in 1809 in Pennsylvania. He went to the University of Pennsylvania Medical School originally intending to become a surgeon. However, in 1840 after his training and internship at Friends Asylum, he was offered to become the superintendent of the newly established Pennsylvania Hospital of the Insane. "His ambition, intellect, and strong sense of purpose enabled him to use that position to become one of the most prominent authorities on mental health care in the latter half of the nineteenth century." He soon became the founding member of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, and later was elected the president of the American Psychiatric Association. From his involvement in these organizations and from his writings, he promoted a standardized method of hospital construction and mental health treatment for the insane which is commonly known as "The Kirkbride Plan." He wrote many articles and reviews for medical journals and also published three books. His third book, On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane (1854), was a very technical and thorough collection of his theories on the topic. Dr. Thomas Kirkbride's theories on the architecture, activities, and medical treatment for the mentally ill were the precedents that formed how the mentally ill were treated in the United States society.
However, this approach not only lacks objectivity, but it also fails to acknowledge the abnormal physiology that precedes this breakdown in self-care. For instance, it has been reported that 70% of patients preceding cardio-pulmonary arrest had a physiological decline in respiratory or mental function (Schein et al 1990). Observing deterioration in activities of daily living alone does not accurately mirror underlying physiological deterioration occurring in patients.
Shapiro, Irwin. The Gift of Magic Sleep: Early Experiments in Anesthesia. New York: Coward, McCann, & Geoghegan, Inc., 1979.
...ng symptoms”. The use of physiology hadn’t exactly transformed society, but it opened up new doors for the study of human behavior.
Misery loves company and in Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener", Bartleby exhibits traits of depression and catatonic schizophrenia as defined in the DSM-IV; however the narrator's other employees also show symptoms of catatonia either influenced by Bartleby or by Melville's own mental state. The theme of mental disorder is prominent throughout the text and a close analysis of specific passages in concordance with the DSM-IV will first reveal how Bartleby exemplifies these mental disorders and secondly show to what extent the entire story serves to personify them.
When someone thinks of a witch, usually he or she thinks about Halloween or the movie The Wizard of Oz. However, during the 16th and 17th century, witches were feared by many. The accusations of witches during this time is the highest reported, more than 500,000 people were tried and more than 100,000 were executed. Many people of the modern era know and believe that witches are not real. This was not the case in the beginning of the 16th century to the end of the 17th century. Individuals were prosecuted as witches because people wanted money and to clean up their community, they were women, and the communities needed a scapegoat for their misfortune.
Finally, epileptic convulsions occur and the patient sinks into a coma. George III's first attack occurred in 1765, four years after his marriage to Queen Charlotte. From 1811 to the time of his death in 1820 he became progressively insane and blind.
Sexuality is a subject that has changed over times, the idea of sexuality and sex shifted from one view to another as people began to enforce different views in society. At the beginning of the 17th century there was little need for secrecy about sexuality and sexual practices as the idea was an open topic that could be discussed freely in society. Adult humour was not kept from children and ideas were open to all (Foucault and Hurley, 2008). However this times in society changed due to the power of the Victorian bourgeoisie. Sex and sexuality became confined and moved into the privacy of the home. People no longer spoke freely about it and secrecy became key (Foucault and Hurley, 2008).
“She will sleep the sleep of death,” said Ghoneim (2001) in his book Awareness during Anesthesia (p. 55). Patient recall is a frightening and fascinating concept describing how a patient could remember events while under anesthesia during surgery. It is a rising concern in the medical field because of its traumatic effects on the patients. Patient awareness involves the patient under anesthesia experiencing pain, vaguely remembering music or remembering the physicians talking as if the patient were dreaming. This topic is very controversial in that there are not very many cases in which a patient experienced recall or brought it to the anesthetist’s attention. Throughout this essay, I am aiming to discuss anesthesia as well as patient recall and the ways in which we can solve this issue. Patient recall involves patients with preconceived notions as well as poorly trained professionals who make mistakes, to solve this issue both patients and anesthesia providers must work together.
Hypnotic phenomenon is one of the most fascinating enigmas of the human psyche. All throughout history ancient peoples and shamans have induced trance-like hypnotic states in rituals and religious ceremonies. Modern hypnotism was first associated with an Austrian physician named Franz Anton Mesmer in the 18th century. He used magnets and other hypnotic techniques to treat patients. The medical community remained largely skeptical of Mesmer’s techniques and hypnotism was soon discredited as fraudulent.
Three events that took place in the fourteenth century and caused it to be described as “calamitous” are The Hundred Years War, The Black Death, and The Little Ice Age. Calamitous is defined as disastrous or catastrophic. These events are what caused the fourteenth century to be described as a bad time period, without the events, I believe, that the fourteenth century would not have been a disaster.
Attempts at anesthesia have been around since people have been preforming surgery, no matter how primitive. Early anesthetics were soporifics or narcotics, these dull the senses and induce sleep. A few of the early anesthetics were belladonna a type of plant, alcohol, marijuana, jimsonweed, mandrake, and opium. While all of these gave some pain relief, none of them guarantee sedation. There has also been attempts to use hypnosis to make people fall asleep. By the 1840’s there was two regularly used anesthetics, opium and alcohol. The only bad thing about both of these is they had negatives to go along with the positives. Two of these negatives were addiction, and neither of them could typically completely dull the pain. If you took doses big enough to get the full affect could just as easily kill you. But this all changed when Dr. William Morton soaked a sponge with ether and put it over his patient’s mouth and nose which made him unconscious. When the patient woke he said he had no memory of the surgery and felt no pain. This discovery changed the world of anesthetics forever.
The mental status exam investigates global and limbic brain functions, left and right parietal functionality and language. This is achieved through tests such as, level of consciousness, memory, and language assessment (Blumenfeld, 2010). Yanagawa and Miyawaki (2012) highlight the importance of obtaining reports from witnesses to assist with a mental status examination. They state that pre-hospital patients can deteriorate quickly into unconsciousness, limiting the ability for para...
The scientist in 1850`s started to study human perception, vision and the nervous system in the human mind. William Wundt started to explore the understanding of consciousness, as well as feelings, emotions and ideas. He viewed the consciousness as having several parts, and he intended that this could be investigated by analysis or reduction. He was certain that the conscious mind actively systematises the experiences instant. William Wundt believed in something called introspection. The idea behind introspection is that a person can observe inside the human mind and find out the information of what they are thinking and feeling. We will now look at the approach of consciousness through behavioural aspects and neurophysiological aspects as well as introducing different theories and measures that covers the measuring of consciousness.