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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 1962)
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON THURSDAY. AUGUST 9. 1962 The Medical Roundup (r. Consultant In Medlrin Mayo clinic Piiifetsor of Madlcloi Mayo clinic and Tribunt Syndicate, 161) Teacher Reminded Solons Do Other Things Than Legislate cor re c t pi diagnosis. We J give shots of I mis ui mm, J and later we Penon Who It Terribly Tirad For 40 years I have been saddened to see that common ly, when a person goes into a mental de pression (mel ancholia) we doctors for some time fail to make the m r Aivaru may send the person for an examination in a hospital. If. as commonly happens, a gallstone is found, this is thought to be respon sible for the symptoms, and it is removed surgically. But this does no good, and it may do great harm. : Several hundred times when at a consultation, I have suggested to the patient's doc tor that all the man's feelings of toxicity, fatigue, abdomi nal pain, indigestion, head ache, and backache, were due to his depression, the doctor has not been convinced. When he was in college no one had ever shown him a pa tient with one of the com monest diseases there is a depression, and hence he knew nothing about it. He did hot know that one of the common symptoms of melan cholia is abdominal pain. As a result, when he went out into practice, he rarely ever recognized a depression. Obvious Reason Many depressions come without any obvious reason, or perhaps because a woman has just had a baby; other de pressions are triggered by some disaster. Often I say to a woman, "Why are you so sad?" and perhaps, after cry ing a bit, she tells me of a husband who is drinking heavily, or dying with a heart attack; or she tells me of her sorrow over a handicapped or delinquent child. 1 recently read-an article on the bodily complaints of depressed persons 'written by two teachers at - Harvard Drs. J. B. Stoeckle, and G. E. Davidson. Usually the patient talks only of great fatigue, especially in the morning. Many have insomnia and they "toss and turn all night long." ' Many lose their appetites, and complain that their food has lost its taste. Most of them lose all sexual desire ind interest, and the men commonly become temporar ily impoieni. M .1 n y feel strange and "not themselves," and many no longer can feel Jove for husband and chil dren. Many have headache, and many have so much pain about their joints that they are thought to have arthritis. Many, if questioned closely, will admit that they feel ter ribly unhappy and perhaps sinful. Religious people will say that God has turned His face away from them. I al ways ask these people if they are thinking of suicide, and a high percentage of them say, "Yes; I would love to have this misery over with, but I don't take my life be cause of my religion, or be cause I don't want to hurt my mother." In the severest cases the person cannot work. Occasionally, one sees one of these patients in a manic (mentally too active) phase, when again, the diagnosis is missed. To illustrate: one day when I came back from a trip, my assistant said that an attractive-looking woman of 35 had been referred to me because of abdominal pain. Examination had shown a small rupture in her groin and for this she had been op erated on. That afternoon when I dropped in at the hos pital to sec her, I found she was out. The same thing hap pened in the next three or four days, and then I asked the floor nurse, "Why is this woman always out?" The nurse said, "She is the most unusual woman the most social and friendly and talka tive person you ever saw. Every day she goes all through the hospital making friends with everyone." In Excited Spell Eventually, when I caught up with the woman I asked her if she was always that energetic, and she said, "Oh, no; I am now in one of my excited spells; pretty soon I'll be down in the depths, and then I won't talk even to Mother." I asked, "Why is a lovely girl like you unmar ried at 35?" and she said, "When I am manic, I get en gaged; but when I am de pressed, I lose all interest in my beau, and he leaves me." I asked her, "Have you any relatives in a mental hospi tal?" She said, "Oh yes; my mother and her sister are de pressed." What saddened me was that so far as I could learn from the woman, none of the several physicians who had seen her had ever suspected that she was a "manic-depressive." Many of my friends now ask me, "How did it happen that you, who for years was a stomach specialist, have now become almost a psy chiatrist?" And my answer is that at least a third of the people who came to me, sup posedly with some serious disease in the abdomen, turned out to have their trouble up in the brain. Obvi ously, I just had to learn to help these mentally disturbed people, because there aren't enough psychiatrists to go around. The best treatment for a depression is a siiort course of electro-shocks. Oft en psychotherapy has no effect. Harry Ferguson ernment If a friend or member of your family becomes afflicted with a mental disease, you can help by recognizing his symptoms and urging him to seek medical aid. To know about symptoms and treat ments read Dr. Alvarez' book let. "When Mental Illness Strikes a Family." To obtain it, send 25 cents and a stamped, self-addressed en velope with your request to Dr. Walter C. Alvarez, Dept. MMT, The Register and Trib une Syndicate. Box 957, Des Moines 4, Iowa. By HARRY FERGUSON Washington - HTC - Letter from Miss Ellie F. Ogburn, Danville. Va., to the Wash- FJ ington Post; ror 23 years I have taught A m e r i can history and gov eminent. I have tried to Instill in my students a love of coun try and a re spect for gov- Recently I was a visitor to the gallery of the House of Representatives. There had to be a second roll call to obtain a quorum, a congressman had to request order and finally the chair was forced to ask members to stop talking and sit down. There were boys and girls in the galleries from all over the United States. They had come to see how the duly elec ted congressmen of the great est country on earth conduct ed the business of making laws. It was a sorry spec tacle." With all deference to Miss Ogburn, it is necessary to point out to her that she is championing an old-fashioned conception of the function of Congress. True, there was a time when congressmen ar rived in the chamber prompt ly, seriously debated a bill and then voted on it. But Con gress makes its own rules and this one seems to have decid ed that its function is not to vote oh bills. There are various ways not to vote on bills, and not showing up in the chamber and milling around in disorder is only one of them that comes un der the general heading of "non-legislative strategy." Cites 'Brilliant Example' In the Senate we have just witnessed a brilliant example of how not to vote on bills. Some senators decided not to vote on the space satellite bill. They not only were not go ing to vote on it themselves, they were not going to let anybody else vote on it. The way you accomplish this is to start a filibuster, which means you keep talking indef initely so there cannot be a vote. Sen. Maurine Neuberger fil ibustered for 4 hours and 39 minutes when her turn came and it was a notable contri bution to the non-legislative concept of Congress even if she did have to slip out of her tight shoes. But who in his wildest dreams would have imagined that Mme. Neuberger and her don't - vote - on - bills fac tion could win a doublehead er? They did by agreeing to end the filibuster for 10 days if the other senators would promise not to bring in a farm bill to be voted upon. The promise was forthcoming and undoubtedly this was the finest hour for the non-leg islative legislators. It is no secret that there is a move on to make sure no body votes on anything by having Congress adjourn and go home. This possibility was suggested to President Ken nedy at his press conference and quicker than you could say Hyannis Port he announc ed he was against adjourn ment. The moral of this is that you can be in your mid 408 and still be old fashioned by insisting that congress vote on bills. Under Misapprehension Miss Ogburn doubtless la bors under the misapprehen sion that members of Con gress have nothing to do but study bills and vote on them. This is a narrow conception and perhaps she should con sider the case of Rep Wil liam Ayres. an Ohio Repub lican. He wanted to give a party, so he took time from his other work to compose this invitation: "Are you tired of people in wet evening clothes? Would you like to go to a party where everyone stays as dry as the martinis? I'm throwing a little old fashioned type of party where you aren't obli gated to do anything . . . There are a few things to keep in mind: Elbow bend ing is permitted but arm twisting isn l. There is no swimming pool which should keep away the New Fron tier types. Larry Lanolin won't be providing music, but we've arranged for Vic Trolo to fill in." Senator Writes Poem Witty sayings aren't easy to come by. Miss Ogburn, and if the congressman stayed away from the House cham ber to produce his letter, let us consider it a plus for lit erature. Which brings us to culture and the poem writ ten by Sen. Jennings Ran dolph, a Democrat from West Virginia: How like the game of base ball is the game of life we play. Except that in life's game we keep on when we're gray. .The bases arc the passing years and the foes we meet are strong. And ever stiffer in defense they fight as we move along. And often down near home plate success arm's length away - We make one little error and we've lost our whole life's play. Now, just' suppose the sen ator had been interrupted while writing that poem to go to the chamber and vote on some bill or other? His soaring imagery, his involved rhyme scheme, the entire flight of his creative imag ination might have been lost bevond recall. Miss Ocburu. I a cynical fellow said to me the other day, "Well, Jen- sWJPW Good News! ALL FOR nings Randolph falls consid erably short of John Keats." 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