Subject(s)
Ergotism/complications , Ergotism/epidemiology , Ergotism/history , Hallucinations , Meteorological Concepts , Religion and Psychology , Secale , Tremor , England/epidemiology , Ergotism/ethnology , Ergotism/etiology , Ergotism/pathology , Ergotism/psychology , Hallucinations/diagnosis , Hallucinations/epidemiology , Hallucinations/ethnology , History, 17th Century , Humans , Secale/adverse effects , Secale/history , Secale/poisoning , Tremor/classification , Tremor/diagnosis , Tremor/ethnology , Tremor/historyABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 have been studied by many historians looking for the complex social, political, and psychological determinants behind the community-wide hysteria that led to a travesty of justice and the deaths of 20 innocent Puritans. Recently, ergot poisoning has been put forth by some as a previously unsuspected cause of the bizarre behaviors of the young adolescent girls who accused the townsfolk of witchcraft. In this essay the circumstances behind the ergot poisoning theory for this historical event are described. When the evidence is weighed carefully both pro and con, it seems unlikely that ergotism explains much of what went on in colonial Salem.
Subject(s)
Ergotism/history , Mycotoxins/history , Witchcraft/history , Claviceps/growth & development , Climate , Edible Grain/history , Edible Grain/microbiology , Ergotism/psychology , History, 17th Century , Humans , Hysteria/history , Hysteria/psychology , Mass Behavior , Massachusetts , Mycotoxins/poisoning , Phytotherapy , Witchcraft/psychologyABSTRACT
Addiction in the context of drug abuse usually is perceived as habitual dependence on the part of the consumer of a potentially habit forming drug. Attention is drawn to an alternative pattern of drug abuse, namely, unwarranted prescription of drugs on the part of physicians. An example of what the writers perceive is the habitual distribution of a potentially harmful drug in the absence of a clear-cut indication. Attention is being drawn to the worldwide use of bromocriptine, an agent suspected of causing occasional vasospasm, hypertensive cerebral accident and myocardial infarction, for the purpose of ablactation. An additional observation is described where, following administration of bromocriptine in the puerperium manifestations consistent with ergotism developed. The clinical picture was also consistent with pure puerperal psychosis. Attention is also drawn to the likelihood of a cause-effect relationship between the abovementioned drug (an ergot derivative) and the ensuing psychotic reaction.