A Case of Myxedematous Psychosis

INTRODUCTION In 1873, Gull described five cases of a peculiar disease under the title On a Cretinoid State, Supervening in Adult Women, and explained the similarity to sporadic cretinism, which was described by Hilton Fagge. In 1877, Orth reported five similar cases, and noticed especially the condition of the skin, in which he found an excess of mucin. He, accordingly, named the disease myxedema. He found also, in a case that came to necropsy, atrophy of the thyroid gland, which was previously noticed by Curling in a case of sporadic cretinism. An exact understanding of this condition, however, is dated from the time when Reverdin and Kocher recognized cachexia strumipriva, and when the same condition was brought out experimentally by removing the thyroid. Semon is the first one who claimed definitely that myxedema, cachexia strumipriva, sporadic and endemic cretinism, are in the same disease group, and are characterized by the failure