Background
Her father had assisted Alexander Graham Bell in the marketing of the telephone and had invested wisely.
Her father had assisted Alexander Graham Bell in the marketing of the telephone and had invested wisely.
Investigations leading from his work led directly to the current pharmaceutical treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
In 1887 Emma Bradley, a seven-year-old child, fell ill with encephalitis. Unlike most victims of the disease, she had access to the finest care of that era. George and Helen Bradley were able to convert their estate in Pomfret, Connecticut into a hospital with a full time doctor, nurses and other staff
They were unstinting in their efforts to obtain the finest advice and recommendations from major medical centers.
Their efforts were in vain when at the age of 27, physically and mentally devastated by the disease, Emma Bradley died. In 1932, following the provisions of their will, the nation’s first children's psychiatric hospital was opened in East Providence, Rhode Island.
Charles Bradley was the great nephew of George Bradley. As a pediatrician who had studied neurology during his residency at Babies Hospital in New York, he became the second director of the hospital.
He conducted extensive neurological workups on the patients at the facility.
Included in the workup was pneumoencephalography, a study which often led to severe headaches which Doctor Bradley assumed resulted from the loss of spinal fluid. In an attempt to stimulate the choroid plexus to produce spinal fluid he prescribed Benzedrine. lieutenant was noted by the teachers and nurses that cared for the children that the patients who had received Benzedrine showed an improvement both in behavior and in academic performance.
This was apparent even to the children, who began to call the medication “arithmetic pills” as a result of the improvement in their studies.
Following these events Doctor Bradley published several works regarding the behavioral effects of Benzedrine. However, over 25 years passed before this class of drugs came into favor for the treatment of behavior problems in children.
Doctor Bradley was also credited with the invention of a device to make pneumoencephalography in children easier and wrote widely on childhood schizophrenia. He was also a leader in the use of residential treatment for children with behavioral problems.