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HEBEPHRENIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 607 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HEBEPHRENIA .—ThiS is a disease of See also:

adolescence (Gr. en) which was first described by See also:Hecker and Kahlbaum and more recently by Kraepelin and other See also:foreign workers. Hebephrenia is not yet recognized by See also:British alienists. The descriptions of the disease are indefinite and confusing, but there are some grounds for the belief that such an entity does exist, although it is probably more correct to say that as yet the symptoms are very imperfectly understood Hebephrenia is always a disease of adolescence and never occurs during adult See also:life. It attacks See also:women more frequently than men, and according to Kahlbaum hereditary predisposition to See also:insanity is See also:present in over 50% of the cases attacked. The onset of the disease is invariably associated with two symptoms. On the See also:physical See also:side an arrested or delayed development and on the See also:mental a See also:gradual failure of the See also:power of See also:attention and Hebephrenia. concentrated thought. The onset of the See also:condition is always gradual and the symptoms which first attract attention are mental. The patient becomes restless, is unable to See also:settle to See also:work, becomes solitary and See also:peculiar in habits and sometimes dissolute and mischievous. As the disease advances the patient becomes more and more enfeebled, laughs and mutters to himself and wanders aimlessly and without See also:object. There is no natural curiosity, no See also:interest in life and no See also:desire for occupation. Later, delusions may appear and also hallucinations of See also:hearing, and under their See also:influence the patient may be impulsive and violent.

Physically the subjects are always badly See also:

developed. The temperature is at times slightly elevated and at intervals the See also:white See also:blood corpuscles are markedly increased. The menstrual See also:function in women is suppressed and both male and See also:female cases are addicted to masturbation. According to Kraepelin 5% of the cases recover, 15% are so far relieved as to be able to live at See also:home, but are mentally enfeebled, the remaining 8o% become hopelessly demented. The patients who recover frequently show at the onset of their disease acute symptoms, such as mild excitement, slightly febrile temperature and See also:quick See also:pulse-See also:rate. When recovery does take See also:place there is marked improvement in development. The subjects of hebephrenia are peculiarly liable to tubercular infection and many See also:die of See also:phthisis. There is no See also:special treatment for hebephrenia beyond attention to the See also:general See also:health.

End of Article: HEBEPHRENIA

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HEBER, REGINALD (1783-1826)

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