BLOOD SUGAR STUDIES IN DEMENTIA PRAECOX AND MANIC-DEPRESSIVE INSANITY

THEOPHILE RAPHAEL
1921 Archives of Neurology And Psychiatry  
as determined by means of Benedict's1 modification of the Lewis\x=req-\ Benedict method for the determination of sugar in the blood, has been made. Such a study was regarded as of special interest because of the apparent meagerness of mention in the literature of previous work in this field. At the onset of our experiment the only reference of any pertinence was that of Weston 2 in which presentation is made merely of single (apparently nonfasting) blood sugar determinations upon a series of
more » ... ients classified essentially upon the basis of ward behavior, rather than of actual clinical status. In another article appearing since, Weston 3 reports a second series of cases of dementia praecox and manic-depressive insanity in which single fasting bloods were examined for glucose according to the technic of Meyers and Bailey, and in which apparently no essential deviation from normal was deter¬ mined. We agree that the fasting levels are well within the normal range and that they in themselves carry little or no diagnostic value. On the other hand, we do believe that a series of determinations which shows how the body handles glucose in a comparative way over a given period of time may be of diagnostic value, at any rate of great physiologic importance. We may mention that Weston in his first paper also used the Meyers and Bailey 4 blood sugar technic which is a modification of the Lewis-Benedict method. It is essentially the same as the Benedict modification of the Lewis-Benedict method except that it provides for less dilution of the blood, so that the final reaction may take place in a more concentrated mixture of glucose and picric acid and yet avoids the long process of boiling to dryness as indicated in the original method. Benedict uses a dilution of 1 to 12.5 while Meyers and Bailey use a dilution of 1 to 5.0.
doi:10.1001/archneurpsyc.1921.02180300052005 fatcat:llm5k6z4ebbyvov2a2tulogbnm