Elation, Mania, and Mood Disorders: Evidence from Neurological Disease

The first reports of emotional disorder:; associated with brain damage (usually caused by cerebrovascular disease) were made by neurologist and psychiatrists in case descriptions. Meyer (1904), for example, wrote that mood disorders following brain injury were probably the result of a combination of social, psychological, and biological factors. He proposed that in some cases there may be relationships between particular ·’traumatic insanities.” such as delirium or dementia, and specific locations and causes of brain injury. Babinski (1914) noted that patients with right-hemisphere disease frequently displayed the symptoms of anosognosia. euphoria, and indifference. Blculcr (1951) wrote that, after stroke, “melancholic moods lasting for months and sometimes longer appear frequently.’· Kraepclin (1921) recognized a frequent association between manic depressive insanity and cerebrovascular disease and thought that. in some cases, the atherosclerotic disease produced the mood disorder.