INTRODUCTION 



This thesis is a psychoanalytic study of twenty-two male pa- 

 tients in an experiment on psychoses associated with recognized 

 endocrine disorders conducted in St. Elizabeths Hospital, Wash- 

 ington, D. C., by Dr. Nolan D. C. Lewis with the assistance of 

 Dr. Gertrude H. Davies and myself. 1 



The object was to discover whether there was any correla- 

 tion between certain endocrine disorders and certain psychotic 

 syndromes. It is well known, of course, that there are glandular 

 troubles among both sane and insane. According to Laignel- 

 Lavastine 2 mental disorders can cause endocrine disturbances, 

 and endocrine disturbances can cause mental disorders, or the 

 two processes can coexist. Irrespective of which is the cart or 

 which is the horse, it would be of value to learn what sort of 

 mental disturbance is associated with a disorder of each particular 

 gland or combination of glands, or vice versa. 



At one time Kraepelin 3 suspected there was some connection 

 between dementia precox (or schizophrenia) and endocrine dis- 

 orders, but later considered that he had failed to prove it. In 

 the recent English translation of the portion of his work which 

 deals with dementia precox he says : " Many years ago I en- 

 deavored for a long time to acquire influence on dementia precox 

 by the introduction of preparations of every possible organ, of 

 the thyroid gland, of the testes, of the ovaries, and so on, 

 unfortunately without any result." The results of our study 

 seem to corroborate his original hypothesis. 



From the various white male wards of the hospital there was 

 selected a group of patients who had recognizable endocrine 



1 Lewis and Davies, A Correlative Study of Endocrine Imbalance and 

 Mental Disease, Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, vol. 53-54, 

 1921. 



2 Laignel-Lavastine, M., The Internal Secfetions and the Nervous 

 System, Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series No. 30, 1919, 



P- 34- 



3 Dementia Praecox and Paraphrenia, 1919. 



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