ID# 372:
Epilepsy references
Date:
Circa 1926
Pages: (1|2)
Source:
American Philosophical Society, ERO, MSC77,Ser1,Box36: Trait Files

Epilepsy references

[obscured] references: Ohio State Medical Journal, Columbus 20: 545-608 (Sept.) 1924 *Protein Sensitization and Epilepsy. M. B. Cohen and H. A. Lichtig, Cleveland. - p. 571. Protein Sensitization and Epilepsy. - Ten patients with epilepsy, tested by Cohen and Lichtig to 128 proteins, showed no reaction which could be correlated with the convulsive seizures. It is generally agreed that the tendency to development of anaphylaxis is inherited and in cases of asthma and hay-fever there is a family history of similar conditions in from 30 to 40 per cent of cases. Careful inquiry into the history of these ten cases showed no larger percentage than that found among normal individuals, and conversely, in an analysis of 250 cases of asthma seen by one of the authors, there was no increase in the history of epilepsy in the family. In their opinion, protein sensitization bears little, if any, relation to the etiology of epilepsy. American Journal of Psychiatry, Baltimor April, 1922, X. No. 4 *Epilepsy in Offspring of Epileptics. D. A. Thom and G. S. Walker, Boston, - p. 613. Heredity in Epilepsy. - In view of past experience and present knowledge, Thom and Walter[sic] are quite convinced that epilepsy, as such, does not exist and is by no means entitled to the classification of a disease entity. The syndrome which goes to make up the condition which has borne the name of epilepsy is neither constant nor characteristic. The convulsions caused by lesions of the kidney are quite indistinguishable from those produced by an acute infection. In neither case, may they differ from the group called idiopathic epilepsy. An extremely high percentage of the cases which come to necropsy have gross brain lesions and many of these cases during life have been diagnosed as idiopathic epilepsy. One hundred and seventeen cases were selected fror review. The diagnosis of epilepsy had been determined in all these cases. The subjects had all been married and had borne one or more living children. The total number of children resulting from these 117 matings was 431, of which 280 are still living. Of the parents seventy-six were females; forty-one males. Ninety-nine cases were idiopathic; eighteen organic. The onset of the convulsions began in fifty-nine cases prior to marriage and in fifty-eight cases after marriage. Of the total 117 epileptic parents only twenty-two gave birth to epileptic children. Thom and Walker believe that epilepsy as a disease is not transmitted directly from parent to offspring, but rather that it is the nervous system lacking in the normal stability that is inherited, and the manifestations of this instability may be mental deficiency of all degrees, insanity of various types, neuralgic and psychopathic disorders, convulsions from various exciting causes, which would have little or no effect on a normally developed nervous system. These mental and nervous disorders are less frequently found in the offspring of the so-called epileptic than has heretofore been believed and the future of the offspring borne of epileptic parents is not as hopeless as the pessimistic authorities on heredity record. Maternal defects are more frequently manifested in some form or other in the offspring than are the paternal defects and, when present, are more likely to appear at an earlier age. New York Medical Journal Jan. 8, 1921, 113, No. 2 *Familial Distribution of Migraine-Epilepsy Syndrome. J. A. Buchanan, Rochester, Minn. - p. 45. Migraine-Epilepsy Syndrome. - Two papers published by Buchanan elsewhere and bearing on this subject were abstracted in The Journal, Nov. 27, 1920, p 1521, and Dec. 4, 1920, p. 1595. Colorado Medicine, Denver 22: 331-362 (Oct.) 1925 Allergic Epilepsy: Familial Type. C. Eastlake, Denver. -p. 353. A: 314 Epilepsy Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, Chicago June, 1922, 7, No. 6 *Heredity in Epilepsy. Study of One Thousand Four Hundred and Forty-Nine Cases. C. W. Burr, Philadelphia. - p. 721. Heredity in Epilepsy. - Burr's statistics do not show that direct inheritance is important, since only thirty-four parents were known to be affected. On the other hand, the frequency of insanity, crime, chorea, alcoholism and epilepsy in relatives points toward congenital instability, resulting from abnormality in the germ cell or sperm cell. Considering all the data, it is safe to assume, Burr says, that the effect of heredity if rarely direct; that usually it is indirect and general, not specific. In other words, a predisposition to nervous or mental disease is inherited; the resulting specific disease depends on external causes - it is environmental in the broadest meaning of the word. Quarterly Journal of Medicine, London 75: 235-410 (April) 1926 *Inheritance of Epilepsy. W. R. Brain. - p.299. Inheritance of Epilepsy. - In a series of 200 epileptic patients, a family history of the disease has been found by Brain in 28 per cent, as compared with a figure probably under 10 per cent in a control series from a hospital population. The onset of the disease occurs in the first decade of life in a larger portion of those with a family history of epilepsy than of those without such a history. There was a history of early convulsions in 28 per cent of 176 epileptic persons. Early convulsions were almost twice as common in epileptic persons with a family history of the disease as in those with none. Epileptic patients have been found to transmit the disease to about one in twenty of their offspring, but considering the probably error of the small numbers, little stress can be laid on this proportion. The proportion of first-born among epileptic persons is twice as high, and of the second -born children half as high again, as in the section of the population from which the patients were drawn. It is suggested that the increased liability of first-born children to receive cerebral injury at birth is a factor likely to be responsible for the increased proportion of first-born among epileptic persons. The incidence of insanity among the relatives was found to be no higher than in the general population. The facts are held to indicate that a predisposition, which in at least 28 per cent of cases is inherited, is an etiologic factor in epilepsy. Medical Journal and Record, New York 122: 309-368 (Sept. 16) 1925 *Epilepsy, Type of Heredofamilial Degeneration or Abiotrophy. L.B. Alford, St. Louis. - p. 340. Epilepsy: Type of Heredofamilial Degeneration. - The contention is advanced by Alford that a great deal may be learned about epilepsy by considering it in relation to other nervous afflictions that seem to be of similar nature. The affections most similar to epilepsy appear to be the heredofamilial degenerations or abiotrophies, examples of which are the muscular atrophies and dystrophies, paralysis agitans, Huntington's chorea, progressive cerebral diplegia, myoclonus, dementia praecox, and other conditions. In these conditions the pathologic process is a degeneration of cells and fibers which arises from inborn weakness. In each condition a characteristic set of cells and fibers is involved. In epilepsy the convulsion are assumed to be representative of a type of extrapyramidal motor involvement and to be in series with tremor, chorea, athethosis and incoordination which are types of abiotrophies. The mental aspects of epilepsy are similarly considered to be comparable to the mental disturbances found in Huntington's chorea, cerebral diplegia and dementia praecox. The fundamental causative influence is heredity, although other processes may act in conjunction with heredity as it is now understood.

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