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"True! -- nervous -- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses -- not destroyed -- not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute.... Hearken! and observe how healthily -- how calmly I can tell you the whole story."
    Differential Diagnosis[Top] [Nav]
adrenal cortical insufficiency
    Discussion -- not available online[Top] [Nav]
    Update Comments[Top] [Nav]
  • "The senses are rendered morbidly acute [in rabies], the surface of the body irritatable and readily acted upon by the slightest gust of air, even the feeling of the pulse, inducing an accession of the convulsive paroxysm." [102]
  • Contains sections the menstrual cycle and other endocrine influences on olfactory sensitivity. Notes that epileptic individuals are reported to exhibit greater olfactory sensitivity than nonepileptic individuals. [103]
  • Color vision varies synchronously with circadian cortisol levels. [104]
  • The book review in JAMA 1993;270:2983-2984 is generally unfavorable, but contains some pearls from the book and the reviewer:
    • "Le Guérer presents uncritically... the erroneous statement that schizophrenic children often possess extraordinary olfactory acuity."
    • Pigs can be trained to dig more than a meter into the ground for truffles because that fungus contains a swine sex phermone.
    • "Dogs may be successfully domesticated in part because of their `propensity for the odors of human waste.'"
    • "The fact that the elimination of perceived aromatic differences opened the way to integration of the social classes suggests that plumbing is more essential to democracy than parliamentary procedure."
    • In the middle ages, "nonhousebroken goats were kept inside one's abode -- a preventive measure that may have had some efficacy since the odor of goat `repelled the fleas and lice that spread bubonic plague.'"
    [105]
  • di-007,di-008,ne-501,ge-006,no-w002,no-w007 [106]
  • This is actually part of a biannual series. The Lancet had a series on literature and medicine during 1996-1997. As Abraham Lincoln once said: "People who like this sort of thing will find this is the sort of thing they like." [107]
  • A more recent discussion of the acoustic frequencies of heart murmurs. [108]
    Footnotes in Print Edition[Top] [Nav]
    (1) Psychological Manifestations of General Diseases.
  Hall I, Richard CW. Jamaica, NY: Spectrum, 1980: 141-142.   Amazon.com
    (2) Addison's disease and related psychoses.
  McFarland HR.   Compr Psychiat. 1963;4:90-95.
    (3) The effects of corticosteroids and ACTH on sensory systems.
  Henkin RI.   Prog Brain Res 1970;32:270-94.  Pubmed  Similars
    (4) Cardiac Auscultation. 2nd ed.
  Butterworth JS, et al. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1960: 24-29.
    (5) Addison's disease and psychosis.
  Mattsson B.   Acta Psychiatr Scand Suppl 1974;255:203-10.  Pubmed  Similars
    New References[Top] [Nav]

Addisonism, psychosis, and the senses
    101.Addison's disease, psychosis, and the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone.
  Lever EG, Stansfeld SA.   Br J Psychiatry 1983 Oct;143:406-10.  Pubmed+Abstract  Similars

Non-Addisonian hyperacuity of the senses
    102.The Nature and Treatment of Rabies or Hydrophobia. 2nd ed.
  Dolan TM. London: Ballière, Tindall, and Cox, 1879: 136.
    103.Clinical Measurement of Tase and Smell.
  Meiselman HL, Rivlin RS. New York: Macmillan, 1986: 402-407.
    104.Diurnal variations of acute mountain sickness, colour vision, and plasma cortisol and ACTH at high altitude.
  Richalet JP, Rutgers V, et al.   Aviat Space Environ Med 1989 Feb;60(2):105-11.  Pubmed+Abstract  Similars
    105.Scent: The Mysterious and Essential Powers of Smell.
  Le Guérer A. New York: Turtle Bay Books/Random House, 1992: 260 pp.   Amazon.com
    106.Taste and smell in disease (first of two parts).
  Schiffman SS.   N Engl J Med 1983 May 26;308(21):1275-9.  Pubmed  Similars

Literary angles
    107.Literature and Medicine, vol. 9, Fictive Ills: Literary Perspectives on Wounds and Diseases.
  Graham PW, Sewell E. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990: 198 pp.   Amazon.com

Other
    108.Essentials of Cardiac Physical Diagnosis.
  Abrams J. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1987: 3, 164.   Amazon.com
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    ©1986-2000 John Sotos, MD. All rights reserved.  Last updated 16:33 PDT on July 4, 2000.[Top]

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