HISTOLOGIC CHANGES FOLLOWING METRAZOL CONVULSIONS: WITH NOTE ON A FUCHSINOPHILIC REACTION AS AN INDEX OF EARLY NEUROCYTOLOGIC CHANGE

The purpose of the present study was primarily to obtain information concerning the effects of metrazol in doses sufficient to produce seizures, or of the seizures themselves, on the brain and its vascular supply.

Thousands of psychiatric patients¹ have already been subjected to metrazol therapy. At present it is being employed in treatment of a large and increasing number of schizophrenic patients and, less widely, of patients with affective psychoses,² psychoneuroses³ and other personality problems.⁴

Apparently, the dangers of death from this heroic regimen are relatively slight.⁵ Judged by clinical standards, patients who have been extensively treated do not often show evidence of organic damage to the brain.⁶ Physical complications independent of neurologic damage are, of course, well known; dislocations,⁷ fractures of the long bones,⁸ temporary auricular fibrillation,⁹ laryngeal spasm¹⁰ and compression fractures of the vertebral bodies¹¹ have been