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Observations of Patients with Severe Poliomyelitis

HAROLD M. VISOTSKY, M.D.; DAVID A. HAMBURG, M.D.; MARY E. GOSS, M.A.; BINYAMIN Z. LEBOVITS, Ph.D.

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1961;5(5):423-448.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Introduction

The life-threatening impact of severe poliomyelitis has been vividly described both in the scientific literature and in popular reports about polio patients. Here, for instance is a patient's description of his experience in the acute phase of illness. The realization that I was paralyzed came to me with a merciful gradualness. As the extreme lassitude and weakness left by the fever and the pain wore off, the irritations took over. I yearned to change my position, to move ever so slightly onto a cooler spot on the sheet, and I couldn't. My heels itched and I couldn't even move them up and down on the bed.

Three weeks ago there had been nothing to any of it—breathing, speaking, eating, evacuating, sleeping. I had accepted my body as if it were myself. If I wanted to eat, I ate—whatever and whenever I liked. If I wanted to . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
CHICAGO

Chicago Board of Health, Mental Health Division.

Respiratory Center and Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois, College of Medicine and Adult Psychiatry Branch, Clinical Investigations, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Public Health Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication July 7, 1961.

This investigation was supported (in part) by a research fellowship grant from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. It was conducted in a conjoint program between the Departments of Psychiatry and those departments designated in the functioning of the Respiratory Center, College of Medicine, University of Illinois.

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