Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-fnpn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T07:21:52.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Autonomic Activity and Induced Convulsions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

F. Reitman*
Affiliation:
Netherne Hospital, Coulsdon, Surrey

Extract

Since the influence of the autonomic nervous system on epileptic phenomena became the subject of intensive investigations, several contradictory reports have been published. Williams and Russell (1941) and Williams (1941) found that parasympathetic overactivity (induced chemically and registered by electro-encephalography) increases epileptic activity. Darrow (1944) reported opposite results, his observations being based on electrically induced parasympathetic overactivity on animals. He registered his observations by electroencephalography. Cohen, Thale and Tissenbaum (1044) induced convulsions for therapeutical purposes by administering the parasympathomimetic drug, acetylcholine, and Chatfield and Dempsey (1942) observed the production of fits in cats, when giving acetylcholine and prostigmine together. Though the results were contradictory, the main aim of all these investigations was to establish the cholinergic neurohumoral changes in relation to epilepsy. But, as Williams pointed out, it is impossible to say whether the results are due to a direct central action, are consequent upon changes in the pH or of a respiratory or a circulatory nature. The investigations described in this paper were devised to re-examine these problems clinically. They were based on the hypothesis that if cholinergic overactivity enhances epileptic cerebral activity, the convulsive threshold of the brain should be lowered after administration of anticholinesterases, in particular prostigmine.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1946 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Brenner, C, and Merritt, H. (1942), Arch. Neurol. and Psych., 48, 382.Google Scholar
2 Chatfield, P., and Dempsey, E. (1942), Am. J. Physiol., 131, 633.Google Scholar
3 Cohen, L., Thale, Th., and Tissenbaum, M. (1944), Arch. Neurol. and Psych., 51, 171.Google Scholar
4 Darrow, C. (1944), ibid., 52, 337.Google Scholar
5 Fulton, (1943), Neurophysiology. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
6 Reitman, and Richards, (1945), J. Nerv. and Ment. Dis. 102, 421.Google Scholar
7 Watterson, S., and McDonald, (1939), J. Ment. Sci., 85, 392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8 Williams, D. (1941), J. Neurol. and Psych., 32, 257.Google Scholar
9 Idem and Russell, R. (1941), Lancet, 240, 476.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.