On the pathology of delirium tremens, and its treatment without stimulants or opiates / by Alexander Peddie.

Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the pathology of delirium tremens, and its treatment without stimulants or opiates / by Alexander Peddie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    languor. It thus removes all hindrances to the occurrence of the salutary sleep. It prepares the way for it, not by forcing, but by fa- vouring it; and when the individual, exhausted, seeks his couch, and finds repose, that goes on, not as a drugged sleep, but as a purely natural and profound repose, from which he awakes with restored reason and muscular control. Although I have recommended the tartrate of antimony as a chief remedy in delirium tremens, there are several other means essential to its successful treatment. In the department of medicinal agents, however, I have only further to suggest, that, should the bowels not be moved by the antimony, the compound powder of jalap (5i) will generally be found speedy and efficacious. The other means of cure belong strictly to regimen and diet; and the first of these in importance is bodily freedom. Nothing is more hurtful in delirium tremens than restraint, particularly that of the strait- waistcoat. I have seen instances, and heard of many more, where the cerebral excitement was so increased by the never-ceasing maddening struggles for liberty, that fatal convulsions at last afforded release. All the control required is the presence of one or two judicious attendants, who will humour the patient in his whims and fancies; who will speak and act regarding them so as to assure him of safety, and to relieve him of apprehension, which is the most characteristic feature of the delirivim ; and who will mildly but firmly interpose, if he attempts anything which may accidentally prove injurious to himself or others. Of course injury inflicted wrathfully or vindictively is not to be anticipated, for rage, violence, or outrage, do not occur in this remarkable disease, but only in that affection which I have already briefly noticed, and with which it is sometimes confounded, namely, the madness of drink. Hence the frequent accounts met with in the public prints, of homicidal, suicidal, and other violent acts, said to be perpetrated during fits of delirium tremens, originate in an entire misapprehension of the nature of the two diseases. The apartment, however, in which the delirium tre- mens patient is confined should be well secured, for he may rush out at the door, or jump over the window, in the fright and frenzy of imagined danger. The larger, too, the room is, so much the better, that he may have ample space to advance and retreat, according as he wishes to scrutinize or avoid a suspicious or distressing object of his fancy ; to arrange and re-arrange articles of furniture; or to carry on, after a fashion, the duties of some bustling occupation.