Symptoms of the Paroxysms.—Convulsive seizures are common manifestations of hysteria, and frequently present a great similarity to epilepsy. The prodromal (fore-running) symptoms are frequently present and may begin several days before the convulsion occurs. In milder forms, in which the cause may be due to a temporary physical exhaustion, or emotional shock, the fore-running symptoms are of short duration. The patient may become very nervous, irritable, impatient, have fits of laughing and crying, alternately, or have a feeling of a chill rising in the throat. The convulsion follows these symptoms. The patient generally falls in a comfortable place; consciousness is only apparently lost, for she frequently remembers what has taken place; the tongue is rarely bitten, In the milder forms the movements are apt to be disorderly. In the severe forms the movements are apt to be a lasting contraction of the muscles and the patient may have the head and feet drawn back and the abdomen drawn front. There then may follow a condition of ecstacy, sleepiness, catalepsy, trance, or the patient may show symptoms of a delirium with the most extraordinary sights of unreal things. These convulsions may last for several hours or days. Firm pressure over the ovaries may bring on a convulsion, or if made during a convulsion may arrest it. The disease is rarely dangerous to life, yet death has followed exhaustion induced by repeated convulsions or prolonged fasting. The duration of hysteria is very uncertain.
[286 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
DURING A CONVULSION. The first thing to do is not to be frightened. A patient in a convulsion from hysteria very seldom injures herself during the convulsions. If you are sure it is hysteria, give a nasty tasting medicine, asafoetida is a splendid remedy, but not in pill form, for there is no taste or smell to them. Sometimes a convulsion may be arrested by the sudden use of ice to the backbone or abdomen or by dashing cold water in the face and chest, or by pressing upon the ovaries. When the hysteria is of a mild form it is sometimes a good plan, when the convulsion comes on, to place the patient in a comfortable position and then leave her, and when the patient comes to and finds herself alone and without sympathy, the attacks are less likely to be repeated. Sometimes if you watch a patient closely when she is seemingly unconscious, you will see, if you look at her very guardedly, that one eyelid is not entirely closed, and that the patient really sees much that is occurring around her. I am writing of real genuine hysteria, in which the patient is not quite right, not only physically but mentally,—especially the latter,—during the attack at least. For that and other reasons such patients should not be treated cruelly.
Preventive Treatment of Hysteria.—In order to be successful in this line of treatment the cause must be found and treated. An English physician writes: "It is pitiable to think of the misery that has been inflicted on these unhappy victims of the harsh and unjust treatment which has resulted from false views of the nature of the trouble; on the other hand, worry and ill-health, often the wrecking of the mind, body and estate, are entailed upon the near relatives in the nursing of a protracted case of hysteria. The minor manifestations, attacks of the vapors, the crying and weeping spells are not of much moment, and rarely require treatment. The physical condition should be carefully looked into and the mode of life regulated, so as to insure system and order in everything. A congenial occupation offers the best remedy for many of these manifestations. Any functional disturbance should be attended to and a course of tonics prescribed. Special attention should be paid to the action of the bowels. The best preventive treatment is the one that is given early, when the girl is growing from childhood to girlhood. It should be begun even earlier. A weakly baby should be built up by proper food and outdoor life. Dainties should not be given to such a child. When the child is old enough, as some mothers think, to go to kindergarten school, keep the little one at home. It is plenty early enough to send such a child to school when she is seven years old. This early school work rushes the child, makes it nervous. If you should happen to listen to the heart of many young school children you would find it pounding away at a furious rate. Do not hurry a weakly child. Do not hurry or rush a young girl even though she is strong, from the ages of twelve to sixteen years. Our school system does just that. Instead of taking life easy when she is nearing the crisis (puberty) or is in that period, she is hurried and rushed and crammed with her school work; the girl frequently goes to school during this period, even when she is unwell and sits there for an hour or more with wet skirts and sometimes wet shoes and stockings. Every day I see girls of all ages go past my office here in this cultured city of Ann Arbor, without rubbers, treading through the slush and water. Is it any wonder they become sickly, become victims of hysteria and suffer from menstrual disorders? Dysmenorrhea must follow such carelessness, and the parents are to blame in many cases. Be careful of your children, especially girls at this age, care less for their intellectual growth, and pay more attention to their body development, even if it should happen to be at the expense of their intellectual development. A healthy body is better than all the knowledge that can be obtained, if it goes, as it too often does, with a body that is weak and sick. Outdoor life is necessary. Horseback riding is splendid; walking is also good exercise at a regular time each day."
[NERVOUS SYSTEM 287]
PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Hysteria.—If there is any womb trouble, it must be attended to. There is frequently trouble with the menses in cases of hysteria. It sometimes comes from anemia or simply comes without any special reason. Tonics like arsenic, iron, strychnine and cod-liver oil are needed for anemia. Iron valerate is good, in one grain doses, three times a day, in this disease, when the patient is not fleshy.
1. The following is recommended by Dr. Goodell:
Of each one scruple (20 grains).
Quinine Valerate
Iron Valerate
Ammonia Valerate
Make into twenty pills. Take one or two pills three times a day.
(This is a good tonic in such cases.)