Emotional Aspects of the Respirator Care of Patients with Poliomyelitis

and other current chemotherapeutic measures, acute infections are being gradually brought under control. Acute anterior poliomyelitis, however, like most viral infections, cannot as yet be treated with specific therapeutic agents, although careful supportive treatment may alter the outcome of the acute phase, and skillfully applied orthopedic techniques of care, rehabilitation, and corrective surgery may greatly modify the end result. With the shift in energies and interests towards the challenging problems posed by the manage-ment of chronic illness, physicians are seeing more clearly the interplay of physiological and psychological forces which appears most strik-ingly during efforts to rehabilitate patients. The studies of Meng, the broad and basic survey of Barker, Wright, and Gonick, and, more recently, the interdisciplinary investiga-tions of Ruesch and his co-workers, have brought to light much important material con