Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0085632 (apathy)
 4,089 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Numerous cases of psychogenic death have been cited throughout the world, as well by native peoples, inhabitants of concentration camps and prisoner of war camps. Psychogenic death is a generalized human extreme psychosomatic reaction. It is not specific to any culture or mentality. Psychogenic death refers to death triggered by psychic stimuli. The individual finds himself in a situation where external forces have lead to a restriction of his world and, in addition, is subjectively sensing of the inalterability of his situation. Decisive to the perception of the environment is the subjective emotional view of things which can greatly diverge reality. The physical state of these individuals is marked by total passivity. The psychic condition is characterized by regression, resignation, and apathy. The article described the psychic background and the physical process of a death by psychic phenomena. The case of a 37 year old patient with detailed anamnestic and clinical data is given. His hobby was taking photographs of natural scenery and animals. This had become vital for him, because he did not like his job. The patient suffered from a painful herniation of intervetebral disk. After the operation of the disk he still had backache. He thought that the operation had been unsuccessful. The following day the patient showed the symptoms of the psychogenic death and died within one day. The autopsy, histopathologic, and toxicologic examinations showed no indications to the cause of death.
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PMID:[The psychogenic death of Mr. J. A case report]. 49 38

Pain in the cervical spine in the course of degenerative changes is a frequent complaint reported by patients seeking the help of various specialists. Depending on the location of pathologic changes, the pain in the spine may be accompanied by a whole array of signs and symptoms, which are sometimes more troublesome for the patient than the back pain itself. The symptoms are sometimes so persistent and difficult to treat that they lead the patient to apathy and depression, even to the point of suicidal attempts. Should serious aggravation of symptoms develop despite all efforts at successful conservative therapy, surgical treatment is employed to remove the osteophytes protruding into the lumen of the vertebral canal and compressing the spinal roots. An analysis from 1969 to 1988 of treatment in 237 patients with neurologic disorders and concomitant or dominant disturbances of blood flow in vertebral arteries showed that there are specific indications for surgical decompression of the arteries, i.e., when lumen is constricted by the osteophytes at the level of uncovertebral joints. In a series of 47 patients, 42 cases were found to be pain free.
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PMID:Anterior operations in cervicarthrosis and vertebral artery compression. 193 58