Mental Illnesses And Neuroses

Some types of brain disorders are specifically associated with damage to brain tissue as a result of illness or injury. If the hole in the roof of the fourth ventricle becomes blocked, the cerebrospinal fluid will not be able to leave the ventricles and, under its pressure, the gradual destruction of the tissue will begin. Or a blood vessel in the meninges may burst, and the pressure of the accumulated blood will destroy the adjacent area of ​​the brain.

Tissue damage can also occur as a result of a tumor or infectious diseases such as syphilis. Symptoms (paralysis, loss of sensation or other functions) depend on what part of the brain is affected.

The causes of disorders of another type, the so-called functional disorders - neuroses and psychoses, are less clear, since in these diseases pathomorphologists have not yet been able to detect any structural or chemical changes in the brain.

Usually there are not so much changes in intelligence as emotional disturbances. Neuroses are relatively mild and common disorders with extremely varied symptoms: anxiety, fear, shyness, excessive sensitivity, etc.

Emotional disorders can even lead to organic disorders, such as heart rhythm disturbances and digestive disorders. The cause of this type of mental anomaly has not been precisely established, and there is reason to think that it is complex in each individual case and varies from person to person. There is a theory that neuroses are caused by internal conflicts, and in some cases this explanation seems plausible.

Usually, however, neuroses are caused by several factors acting together (heredity, environment, past events, general health). In any case, the patient is often completely unaware of the reasons for his troubles. There is no single method of treating various neuroses; many of them are amenable to psychiatric treatment; other neuroses gradually disappear spontaneously, without treatment; still others become increasingly worse, and some develop into more serious illnesses—psychosis.

Psychoses are severe mental illnesses that usually require hospitalization of the patient. There are three main types of psychoses, each of which represents an exaggerated form of certain normal tendencies. Manic-depressive psychosis is characterized by alternating excessive elation with depression and is sometimes accompanied by illusions and hallucinations.

Most people with it are healthy for most of their lives but experience repeated episodes of the disease from time to time. Paranoia is a psychosis characterized by obsessions, usually delusions of grandeur or persecution. For “dementia praecox” (one of the types of schizophrenia), a departure from everyday life into the world of dreams is typical, which seems to become the real world for the patient.

It is much more difficult to treat psychoses than neuroses, and in most cases it is not possible to achieve a permanent cure. One of the most energetic methods of treatment is shock therapy, based on the idea that a strong shake can return such a patient to a normal state. Injecting a patient with insulin or metrazol or applying electric current causes severe convulsions.

Such methods of treatment have many disadvantages, and the mechanism of their action is not entirely clear, but in a number of cases, one or another type of shock therapy has led to a cure. Treatment with some new drugs, such as chlorpromazine, has been successful in many cases and is gradually replacing shock therapy.