RT Journal
A1 BENNETT BT, Jr., FITZPATRICK CP
T1 FRactures of the spine complicating metrazol therapy
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1939
FD June 3
VO 112
IS 22
SP 2240
OP 2244
DO 10.1001/jama.1939.02800220006002
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1939.02800220006002
AB Convulsive therapy was first advanced by Ladislaus von Meduna of Budapest, Hungary. He conceived this form of therapy on the basis of reports as to the infrequency of the occurrence of both epilepsy and schizophrenia in the same individual and the fact that patients known to have schizophrenia had greatly improved or had recovered when spontaneous epileptic seizures developed. Meduna1 said "The theoretical basis for the therapy with cardiazol lies in the assumption that a certain biochemical antagonism exists between the convulsive state and the schizophrenic process."Meduna first experimented with animals, producing convulsions by injecting camphor. Jan. 2, 1934, he gave his first injection of a 25 per cent solution of oleum camphoratum to a patient for the purpose of producing a convulsion. He2 found one patient in whom he could not produce a convulsion with camphor, so metrazol (cardiazol) was substituted. Cardiazol, or metrazol, is an