Somatic procedures for the relief of anxiety

Summary and Conclusions

• 1. There is a unanimity of opinion that psychotherapy is the treatment of first choice for anxiety associated with the psychoneuroses. It is only when this approach has failed or cannot be utilized that any of the somatic procedures may be indicated.

• 2. Insulin subshock therapy would seem to be definitely of benefit in allaying anxiety both in the neuroses and the psychoses.

• 3. The work of D. E. Cameron on autonomous anxiety and its treatment by adrenalin-desensitization is valuable from a theoretical aspect and promising from the therapeutic angle.

• 4. The use of the barbiturates to lessen tension and diminish anxiety has been amply reviewed and confirmed by many observers.

• 5. In contradistinction: Electric shock therapy seems to have limited value in anxiety states, and, indeed, in some cases it is claimed that anxiety has been enhanced because of a residual fear of treatment.

• 6. The now classical procedure of prefrontal lobotomy has unquestioned value in relieving anxiety-tension states but produces undesirable by-effects such as convulsions, diminution of intelligence, and “blunting of the personality” characterized by childishness, lack of foresight, impaired judgment and shallowness of feeling.

• 7. The latest procedure is thalamotomy which is aimed to obtain the beneficial results of lobotomy, i. e, relief of tension and anxiety without the aforementioned undesirable complications.