Admission Details for Patient: Rowland Griffith Davies (6493)
Gender: Male Age: 16
Marital Status: Single Religion: Calvinist Methodist
Occupation: Butcher's errand boy
Address: Barmouth, Merioneth
Date of Admission: January 28, 1905
Date of Discharge: November 24, 1905
Discharge Category: Recovered
Disease: Religious Melancholia
Supposed Cause: Religious mania/heredity
Medical Certificate:
Vacant look about the eyes, wants everyone to pray for him, hears voices.
Mrs. Davies, his mother, states that he shouts at people passing, through the window, telling them to take care of their souls, singing hymns and praying continually.
Dr. J. O. Willilams, Barmouth.
Approximate duration of present attack: 4 days
Number of Previous Attacks: 0
Number of Previous Admissions: 0
Number of Subsequent Admissions: 12
Total Number of Admissions: 13
Relatives affected: Father's mother, brother and sister
Epileptic: No
Suicidal: No
Dangerous: No
Clean Habit: Yes
Food Refusal: No
Sleep Habit: Fair
Destructive Habit: No
Disposition: Quiet and industrious
Education: Good
Physical/Mental State at Examination: Health good. This boy comes of a very insane stock. Until few days ago he was a quiet but cheerful boy. He has attended the religious revival meetings and began to pray at one of the meetings, he then came home suffering from religious melancholia, all his sins appearing exaggerated and causing great mental unrest.
Current Diagnosis: Bipolar affective disorder (F31)
Case Notes
1905 Feb 3 - A dark complexioned boy with rosy cheeks, rather short stature for his age, big ears, dark hair and brown eyes, pupils equal and mobile. General bodily health good.
Mentally suffering from Melancholia of a religious type. He has restlessness and loss of control. Has bad aural hallucinations and hears voices singing in the air, a magnified idea of past sins and a distressed state of mind. Most of these symptoms have now gone.
Feb 20 - Has apparently quite recovered and works out of doors. He is now quite cheerful and useful. He says he went to prayer meetings for 5 successive nights and was there until 2 am. Boys of 10 and 12 years were also there until that hour.
Mar 28 - Has had a marked relapse and become very excited and filthy.
Apr 9 - Now very low and will not speak. Looks miserable and depressed. May 30 - Worse than ever, incessant talking and restlessness, a bad case. Sept 26 - Much better in every way. Is putting on weight. Discharged recovered Nov 24th 1905.
Medications/Treatments:
Additional Notes
Readmissions:
30 July 1908 (No. 7139) after a fellow farm worker had upset him by accusing him of having been in the Asylum.
He was diagnosed with Melancholia with some stupor. The Medical Certificate reads: I. Very incoherent and violent, shuts himself up in a room and does not want to see anybody. Imagines that his employer wants to replace him by a boy aged 11 years, wants to fight.
II. Owen Pugh, Brynymor, Llwyngwril, noticed yesterday morning that he was very pugilistic and had trouble to keep him quiet owing to a friend having suggested that he had once been in an Asylum.
Had difficulty in getting him to bed, in the night became very restless and violent. Was kept in his bedroom with difficulty. He can only be influenced by his brother. Discharged recovered on 25 January 1909.
6th January 1912 (No. 7779) with Mania.
The Medical Certificate reads: I. He is very violent in his conduct.
Refuses to take his food.
Incoherent in his conversation. Quite incapable of looking after himself. II. William Thomas Davies, Bronygog, Llwyngwril, brother, states that he has been very excitable during the last two days.
Refusing to take food and will not hold any rational conversation. States also that he has bn. attempting to get hold of a knife but was overpowered by two men.
Discharged recovered on 29th October 1912.
9th July 1920 (no. 9475) with a diagnosis of Recurrent Mania, an exciting cause not stated. The Medical Certificate reads: (a) Extremely excited, shouting and cursing, quite incoherent and rambling, violent and completely out of control.
(b) Mrs. Mary Davies, mother, 2 Northyn Terrace, Llwyngwril, says:
Restless and troublesome, threatens to throw himself out of the window of his bedroom.
On this occasion he was admitted to the asylum from the Workhouse Infirmary at Llanfairfechan where he had been taken the previous day - possibly as an 'en route 'stop on the way to Denbigh.
He was discharged recovered on 20th September 1920.
(A note in the Admissions Register for 1920 reads that Rowland Griffith Davies was transferred to the Service Class and a similar note appears on his subsequent admissions. The gap in admissions from 1912 to 1920 may reflect the fact that he was on active service in France during that period.)
There were eight further admissions in 1921, 1922, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1932, 1933, 1934.
Each time the diagnosis was Mania and each time the patient was discharged recovered.
Rowland Griffith Davies was admitted to Denbigh for the thirteenth and last time on 12th Jan 1937 (No. 12811, C1215) and he remained in care until his death on 20th Oct 1944.
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