Underlying the hallucinosis of alcoholic patients are two factors: first, the patient's personality and emotional motivation; second, toxic and infectious elements. Focal infections have been in doubtful repute as the cause for mental states accompanied by hallucinosis. Sinusitis has come to occupy a prominent position in the literature on focal infections in mental disease because of the apparent ease of lymphatic communication with the brain, because of the existence of localized meningitis due to sphenoiditis, etc. Our attempt in the present study has been to determine whether alcoholic patients with extensive sinusitis are more prone to hallucinations than alcoholic patients who are free from disease of the sinuses.
For diagnostic purposes, we irrigated the sinuses in a series of persons from a large service for alcoholic patients. Practically no discrimination was practiced in selection as the histories especially were found to be unreliable.
A brief summary of our findings