Summary
The signs, symptoms and postmortem findings of 40 mental patients who died from “acute exhaustion of the insane” have been shown to be related or possibly due to dysfunction of the hypothalamus. Although the number of cases is small and the results cannot be considered conclusive, the writer feels that it will augment the meager literature on the subject.
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Thompson, W.A. A theory for the cause of deaths in acutely disturbed mental patients. Psych Quar 13, 503–513 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01562853
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01562853