Healed Subacute Bacterial Endocarditis, a New Entity

Abstract

City : In the last ten years word has gone out from the teaching centers that neuroses are the concern of all physicians. We are trying now to add that the psychoses are also the concern of all physicians. Just as the surgeon likes to treat the patient with appendicitis before peritonitis sets in, just as the internist likes to treat the patient with a failing heart before the stage of decompensation sets in, the psychiatrist likes to treat the psychotic patient before he is climbing up and down the walls. Yet, the psychiatrist is in an odd position. He seldom sees the patient in the early stages ; hence, he often has to resort to the drastic therapies of insulin or electric shock or lobotomy, which are probably the most primitive of all medical treat¬ ments in this day and age. It is hoped that eventually the physician can dispense with such forms of treatment if he can treat these patients in the early stages.