Orbaek P, Lindgren M
Department of Occupational Medicine, Malmö General Hospital, Sweden.
Scand J Work Environ Health. 1988 Feb;14(1):37-44. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.1952.
Sixty-two patients with chronic toxic encephalopathy diagnosed in 1976-1981 were considered for reexamination in 1983-1984. Thirteen were found to have other diseases that might contribute to brain dysfunction. Seventeen were unwilling or unable to participate. The final group consisted of 32 men 33 to 63 (median 55) years of age who were physically and psychometrically reexamined with the same methods used in the initial investigation. The interval between the first and present examination was 21-88 (median 48) months, and exposure to solvents had ceased. The subjects reported some improvement in their neurasthenic problems. In particular they suffered less from fatigue, headache, and dizziness. When diagnosed they had an average of seven out of ten typical neurasthenic symptoms included in the toxic encephalopathy syndrome. At the time of the follow-up the mean number of symptoms had decreased significantly to five. The psychometric retesting showed significant deterioration in verbal memory, improvement in visual memory, and unchanged results on the other tests. In conclusion, these toxic encephalopathy patients improved subjectively when exposure stopped. Psychometrically they performed very close to the initial testing, which excluded progressive brain disease or subacute pharmacological solvent intoxication.
1976年至1981年期间被诊断为慢性中毒性脑病的62名患者在1983年至1984年期间接受了复查。发现13名患者患有其他可能导致脑功能障碍的疾病。17名患者不愿意或无法参与复查。最终的研究对象包括32名年龄在33岁至63岁（中位数为55岁）的男性，他们接受了与初次调查相同方法的身体和心理测试复查。初次检查与本次检查的间隔时间为21至88个月（中位数为48个月），且已经停止接触溶剂。研究对象报告说他们的神经衰弱问题有所改善。特别是他们较少感到疲劳、头痛和头晕。确诊时，他们在中毒性脑病综合征所包含的十种典型神经衰弱症状中平均有七种症状。在随访时，症状的平均数量显著减少至五种。心理测试复查显示言语记忆显著恶化，视觉记忆有所改善，其他测试结果没有变化。总之，这些中毒性脑病患者在停止接触后主观上有所改善。从心理测试来看，他们的表现与初次测试非常接近，这排除了进行性脑部疾病或亚急性药物性溶剂中毒的可能性。
