PROGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

Abstract

WITH the aim of estimating the protein equilibrium in some groups of mental disease, the author has carried out the estimation of tryptophane in the plasma where it furnishes an indirect index of the albumin-globulin ratio. In amentia and above all in paresis he has found an increase in blood tryptophane, and in regard to the latter he believes that it may be referred to a particular state of lability in the equilibrium of the serum proteins. The increase in tryptophane is not in agreement with the degree of severity of the disease or with the confusional picture which accompanied it. In senile dementia, especially when accompanied by cerebral or diffuse arteriosclerosis, a conspicuous increase in blood tryptophane was noted. In other groups of mental disease (dementia praecox, epilepsy, brain disease, alcoholism, etc.) the blood tryptophane is normal or shows slight oscillations such as occur in healthy people. R. G. G.