Malaria fever therapy for general paralysis of the insane in Denmark.

This article explores the history of general paralysis and malaria fever therapy in Denmark. I argue that the small size of the country gave Danish psychiatrists excellent opportunities for performing statistical studies of general paralysis in the 19th century. In the early 1920s malaria fever therapy was introduced in Danish mental hospitals and raised hopes of a cure for paralytics. Malaria fever therapy became popular among Danish psychiatrists, but the new therapy also raised ethical questions and led to the first regulations concerning informed consent in the history of Danish psychiatry.

The origins of electroconvulsive therapy in denmark.

In recent years, the history of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has received renewed attention from historical researchers, who have published thorough monographs and articles on the subject of ECT. In these studies, however, one of the important events in the history of ECT has been overlooked: the lectures by Cerletti and Bini at the Third International Neurological Congress in Copenhagen. The lectures at the congress were the first presentation of ECT before a large international audience and became the impetus to the first Danish ECT trials. The first part of this article outlines the events of the neurological congress in 1939 and provides a translation of the paper presented by Bini at the congress. In the last part of the article, the history of ECT in Denmark is summarized.

[Last resort? Some incidents in the history of psychosurgery in Denmark]. / Sidste udvej? Traek af psykokirurgiens historie i Danmark.

In 1935 psychosurgery was invented in Portugal by Egas Moniz. A few years later the new therapy for psychiatric patients were introduced and widely used in Danish mental hospitals. Why did Danish psychiatrists utilize an uncertain and unsafe treatment, and what conditions contributed to the extensive use of psychosurgery in Denmark? To answer these questions, this article focuses on the large archives from the Directorate of the State Mental Hospitals and various mental hospitals in order to investigate the negotiations regarding psychosurgery. Especially the case notes from the State Mental Hospital in Vordingborg, a hospital with 850 beds in southern Zealand, give an insight into the doctors' considerations, when they contemplated on using psychosurgery. In the archive in Vordingborg 336 patient records from lobotomized patients have been found and subjected to statistical analysis in this article. The analysis of the patient records from Vordingborg and other state mental hospitals shows that the practise of lobotomy was a complex matter, and a number of different factors played a part in the wide use of the therapy in Denmark. Especially the dire conditions of the mental hospitals in the 1940s and 1950s made doctors consider psychosurgery a solution for the many patients living a miserable life in the back wards of the hospitals. Patients, who had spent years of their lives in the hospital's "disturbed wards", were particularly exposed to psychosurgery. In the patients records the most common indications for psychosurgery were "unruly" and "aggressive" behaviour, but other factors such as the patient's lengths of stay in the hospital, patients racked with pain, and lack of response to other somatic treatments could also prompt psychiatrists to employ lobotomy.