Contracting Schizophrenia
Lessons From the Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919
- Author Affiliation: Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- DIAGNOSIS
- DISEASE OUTBREAKS
- HISTORY OF MEDICINE
- INFLUENZA, HUMAN
- JAMA CLASSICS
- PREGNANCY
- SCHIZOPHRENIA
SUMMARY OF THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Psychoses Associated With Influenza, I: General Data: Statistical Analysis
Karl A. Menninger, MS, MD
Menninger presented a series of 100 patients observed at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital from September 15, 1918, through December 15, 1918. All patients had mental disturbances associated with influenza.
See PDF for full text of the original JAMA article.
Commentary
The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 was contracted by more than 500 million individuals worldwide, between 50 million and 100 million individuals died in just 1 year, and the preponderance of deaths was among 20- to 40-year-olds.1 One of the few silver linings in the dark, devastating cloud of this epidemic has been its value as a probe for elucidating conceptual approaches for diagnosing and treating subsequent psychiatric illnesses among those who were infected and survived. Paradoxically, each advance in the diagnostic classification systems of psychiatric disorders during the …
