This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
A review of the old literature of the period when one could hardly speak of psychiatry as a science brings out the fact that dyspeptic symptoms were frequently observed in mental cases by the older writers. This fact was recognized by Griesinger, although he did not consider it essential, and warned against the theory of "kopropsychiatry." The oldest investigations are concerned mainly with the gastric pathology, that is, abnormalities of the gastric secretion and motility.
With regard to disorders in psychotic patients, Reiter refers particularly to the work of Buscaino, Cotton and Lingjerde. Buscaino has frequently found inflammation of the small intestines in dementia praecox, amentia and postencephalitic conditions in postmortem examinations. Cotton's roentgenologic studies have shown ptosis, atony and more or less pronounced dilated areas in the large intestines. The postmortem examination confirmed these observations. Moreover, they revealed inflammatory processes and atrophied regions, with an extremely thin wall.
Reiter