The Apallic Syndrome

Book excerpt: The subject of the apallic syndrome is one which has long been familiar to me, although I have not personally studied it as deeply as I would have wished. I became acquainted with this syndrome long before the last war, when my neurosurgical colleague Hugh Cairns (1952), made his pioneer contribution under the term "akinetic mutism" . This was an ar resting title, but it was one which did not altogether satisfy some of his colleagues, includ ing myself. We found it difficult to suggest an alternative. That is one reason why I wel come the expression "apallic syndrome" . Forensic practice has forced me from time to time to consider rather more deeply this distressing syndrome, and to try and marshal my ideas in a form which would satisfy my colleagues in the legal profession. More than once I have been instructed to make a medico legal assessment of these unfortunate patients. The points which have concerned my lawyer friends have not been matters of diagnosis, or of morbid anatomy, or of etiology. The fac tual problem which has been put before me was to make some approximate assessment as to the expectation of life. Vague guess-work is unacceptable in such circumstances. What the lawyers require is a precise and dogmatic answer.