Melancholia: A Historical Review

Lewis, Aubrey

doi:10.1192/bjp.80.328.1

Cited by 171 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…This association may be due to a combination of neurobiological and psychosocial factors resulting from recurrent seizures. In the 5th century BC, Hippocrates first suggested a bidirectional relationship between epilepsy and depression when he wrote 'melancholics ordinarily become epileptics, and epileptics melancholics' (Lewis, 1934). Recently, there has been renewed interest in the possibility that depression and stress may act to enhance epileptogenesis (Karst et al, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic Low-Dose Corticosterone Supplementation Enhances Acquired Epileptogenesis in the Rat Amygdala Kindling Model of TLE

Taher

Salzberg

Morris

et al. 2005

Neuropsychopharmacol

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Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) is associated with high rates of depression and anxiety. A bidirectional causal relationship has been suggested, with these psychiatric comorbidities themselves enhancing epileptogenesis, possibly via hypercortisolemia. We examined the effects on epileptogenesis of chronic supplementation with low-dose corticosterone (CS) in the electrical amygdala kindling rat model. Adult Wistar rats were ovariectomized and implanted with bipolar electrodes into the left amygdala. After 1 week recovery, one group (n ¼ 7) had CS (3 mg/100 mlFapprox. 4.5 mg/kg/day) and a control group saline (n ¼ 7) added to their drinking water, and both groups underwent twice daily electrical stimulations. Rats were culled 2 weeks after reaching the fully kindled state. A stereological optical fractionator technique was used to estimate the number of CA1 pyramidal cells in the hippocampus ipsilateral to the stimulations. Fewer stimulations were required in the CS-supplemented rats than in controls to reach the fully kindled state (32 vs 81, po0.03, Student's t-test) and the first Class V seizure (14 vs 57, po0.05). The mean after-discharge length was greater in the CS group (p ¼ 0.03, repeated measures analysis of variance). There was no difference in the mean number of CA1 neurons (1.05 Â 10 5 vs 1.04 Â 10 5 , p ¼ 0.98). These data demonstrate that low-dose CS enhances epileptogenesis in this model of MTLE. This provides support for the hypothesis that chronic hypercortisolemia, as a result of stress, anxiety, and/or depression, may facilitate the development and progression of epilepsy in patients with MTLE. The lack of difference in hippocampal CA1 neurons indicates that the mechanism does not primarily involve pyramidal cell loss.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic Low-Dose Corticosterone Supplementation Enhances Acquired Epileptogenesis in the Rat Amygdala Kindling Model of TLE

Taher

Salzberg

Morris

et al. 2005

Neuropsychopharmacol

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“…Meanwhile convulsive therapy has survived, albeit through serendipity, as a frontline tool of clinical psychiatry. That its true potential lay in affective disorder was no detraction from its significance: before shock treatment, the chief healer of depression was time (Lewis, 1934), and for severe forms of this disorder it delivers immediate effects unobtainable with modern medication. Undoubtedly psychiatry is indebted to Meduna for setting out on a path culminating in an empirically proven intervention that has surely rescued thousands from the depths of despair.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘A violent thunderstorm’: Cardiazol treatment in British mental hospitals

McCrae

2006

Hist Psychiatry

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In the annals of psychiatric treatment, the advent of Cardiazol therapy has been afforded merely passing mention as a stepping-stone to the development of electroconvulsive therapy. Yet in the 1930s it was the most widely used of the major somatic treatment innovations in Britain's public mental hospitals, where its relative simplicity and safety gave it preference over the elaborate and hazardous insulin coma procedure. Devised on a dubious hypothesis of biological antagonism, Cardiazol armed psychiatry with an immediately effective weapon in the battle against schizophrenia, an enduring and debilitating condition responsible for over half of the mental hospital population. What made Cardiazol work – or appear to work? This account shows how evaluation of convulsive therapy was skewed by naÔve outcome measurement and diagnostic discrepancies, and how its therapeutic indication evolved from schizophrenia to affective disorders. Psychological mechanisms are considered, with the suggestion that the intense fear experienced during treatment – the major reason for abandoning Cardiazol in favour of electroshock – was therapeutically advantageous.

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“…Não há melhor exemplo disso do que o conteúdo da Anatomia da melancolia, de Burton (1883). A tristeza pode ocasionalmente ser encontrada entre esses sintomas, mas não era utilizada para a definição, em qualquer sentido real (Lewis, 1934).…”

Section: A Melancolia Durante O Século XIXunclassified

Melancolia e depressão durante o século XIX: uma história conceitual

Berríos

2012

Rev. latinoam. psicopatol. fundam.

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Este artigo analisa historicamente o background ideológico que tornou possível a transformação da noção de melancolia nos conceitos de depressão e transtorno bipolar, a partir das mudanças médicas e psicológicas ocorridas no decorrer do século XIX. A antiga noção de melancolia foi remodelada e sua transição para a doença depressiva foi facilitada pelo conceito de Iipemania de Esquirol, que, pela primeira vez, enfatizou a natureza afetiva primária da doença. Finalmente, uma vez obtidas as condições conceituais necessárias, a melancolia e a mania foram combinadas no conceito de insanidade alternante, periódica, circular, ou de forma dupla, seus rígidos padrões descritivos foram flexibilizados, tendo culminado este processo na sinopse de Kraepelin.

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Melancholia: A Historical Review

Cited by 171 publications

References 19 publications

Chronic Low-Dose Corticosterone Supplementation Enhances Acquired Epileptogenesis in the Rat Amygdala Kindling Model of TLE

Chronic Low-Dose Corticosterone Supplementation Enhances Acquired Epileptogenesis in the Rat Amygdala Kindling Model of TLE

‘A violent thunderstorm’: Cardiazol treatment in British mental hospitals

Melancolia e depressão durante o século XIX: uma história conceitual

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