Research in Dementia Praecox
- Author:
Nolan
D. C. Lewis, M.D. National Committee for Mental Hygiene, New York. $1.50.
This is a book by an American author, Professor N. C. D. Lewis, of Columbia University. It is of a quite unusual kind and is the result of the author’s attempt to collect the findings of research work done into the condition during the last fifteen years. Its publication in America was largely made possible by the beneficience of the Scottish Rite Masons. In the prefact it is suggested that it is written both for those with and without scientific training. This seems rather doubtful, for it seems specially meant for advanced students and research workers in psychiatry. For the latter, in fact, such a book would seem to be a most helpful, if not an almost indispensable, contribution.
One of the many difficulties encountered by psychiatrists when setting out to do research along any original lines is the really serious one of trying to discover all the work that has been done and published already. Hitherto the choice has been either to spend years in collecting such material or to risk duplication of work already done. Professor Nolan was particularly impressed by the amount of duplication of this kind and by the great lack of proper co-ordination, when visiting many research centres? he visited over two hundred such centres? in the course of his preparation of the book. Dementia praecox, if not the greatest, is certainly one of the three main scourges in our speciality, and every psychiatrist will heartily endorse the author’s plea to get research into this mental disease placed on a sound footing. This book sets a splendid example, for by summarising the work already done and by making suggestions along which lines further research can be usefully continued, it makes a splendid starting off place for the research worker.
The arrangement of the book follows conventional lines. Including an introduction, it has seven sections dealing with the clinical features, etiological aspects, structure changes, diagnosis, therapeutics, and final conclusions. Under each heading, the author briefly summarises the work that has been done in that particular field, and indicates where further research is much needed by asking pertinent questions, which often strike one as being really fundamental. At the end of each section is collected a very full bibliography arranged chronologically under the years in which reports on work done appeared in the various journals. The bibliography, indeed, appears quite exhaustive, roughly filling a third of the pages of the book. No attempt is made to evaluate the relative importance of the different contributions and although at first thought it might appear desirable to do so, it is obvious that it is a more valuable record as it is, being now a collection of the work done, and not just someone’s opinion of that work.
In the introduction, which briefly deals with modern trends in research, the author has several statistical tables roughly showing the source of the material he has collected. Every country contributes its share, but it is impossible not to notice how little research into this condition is apparently going on in this country, not only as compared with America, but also with Continental countries. The fact that our research workers may be more reluctant to get into print until they feel they have some really valuable contribution, only partially accounts for this. Under the other sections one is very much impressed by the author’s facility in making a coherent, interesting and well-knit book from so much diverse matter. It is very apparent that his study of the disease has been profound, and that his suggestions for further work are wise and necessary, being based on a complete master}’ of its problems and difficulties. Perhaps, however, it is the last section that one finds most arresting. After giving his ideal plan for procedure in psychiatric research, which Professor Nolan himself suggests may be too Utopian to be put into practice at once, he formulates a scheme on quite simple and practical lines which can be followed immediately.
It is a book which should certainly be in the hands of all those who are devoting themselves to the study of insanity and to the care and treatment of mental patients. It raises the hope that an equally authoritative psychiatrist will do the same work for other forms of mental disorder. By its very nature, of course, it is the kind of book that must be brought up to date every few years, and as this possibility seems to depend very much on the reception the present volume receives, it is sincerely hoped that the book achieves the popularity it deserves.
This would enable it to become a recognised and frequently revised guide to research in dementia praecox. Neil Macleod.
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