Dyspepsia and “biliousness,” which are sometimes present, are best overcome by pepsine, and the following, every third night, to be followed in the morning by some laxative mineral water:—
| ℞. | Mass hydrargyri, | |||
| Ext. colocynth, co., | āā | gr. iij. | M. |
It may be made in pill form or be put in a capsule.
Finally, plenty of exercise and fresh air, baths, regular habits of life, and treatment directed to those complaints, real or imaginary, if still existing, for the relief of which the patient first took the drug.
The rapid way in which these patients gain flesh is sometimes astonishing. A gain of fifty pounds in a month’s time is not unusual.
PROGNOSIS.
The prognosis is, in the majority of cases, good. A cure can be effected in any case, provided the directions followed are faithfully carried out, especially in a private institution, where absolute control of patient and nurse is possible, and where the number of patients is limited.
Levenstein says:—
“To treat morbid craving for morphia with success, it is necessary to decide the principal question, namely, whether each individual patient does or does not suffer from pathological complaints or chronic disorders requiring narcotics for their relief. If he does, it is only necessary for the doctor to deprive the patient of the morphia syringe and to inject personally, if his time permits of so doing, a dose which he thinks sufficient, or else to give the narcotic internally.