John Adams: Mental Instability

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	The Health and Medical History of President
	John Adams: Mental Instability

erratic	"Historians have long believed that John Adams was given at times to irrational behavior that could only be attributed to emotional instability" [7]. Labels such as "manic-depressive," "slightly paranoid," and "a man consumed by an irrepressible urge to master the world" have been applied to Adams [7d]. Both he and his mother had quick tempers and labile moods, able to move from the highest spirits to the deepest despondency. Adams could be meek or rash, cautious or explosive [1c]. Further musings on this topic will be left to psychiatrists.

More...	Ferling and Braverman [7] note that several of Adams' contemporaries also concluded he was unstable: James McHenry (Secretary of War) Called Adams "actually insane." Theodore Sedgwick (Senator from Massachusetts) Said the President "had his passions" that were derived from a "half-frantic mind." Benjamin Franklin Told Congress that Adams "is always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes and in some things [he is] absolutely out of his senses." Alexander Hamilton Publicly denounced Adams in 1800, claiming that Adams had "certain fixed points of character [that] deprive him of self command and produce very outrageous behaviour." Thomas Jefferson Quoted rumors circulating in the capital in 1799 that Adams was prone to lose control and given to "dashing and trampling his wig on the floor." It should be noted that several of these men were political rivals of Adams, which may have colored their opinions.

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Bumgarner, John R. The Health of the Presidents: The 41 United States Presidents Through 1993 from a Physician's Point of View. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Company, 1994. ISBN 0-89950-956-8 @ Amazon [a] p. 9 [b] p. 10 [c] p. 11 [d] pp. 9-15
Devotes one chapter to each President, through Clinton. Written for the layperson, well-referenced, with areas of speculation clearly identified, Dr. Zebra depends heavily on this book. Dr. Bumgarner survived the Bataan Death March and has written an unforgettable book casting a physician's eye on that experience.
Blinderman, A. John Adams: fears, depressions, and ailments. NY State J Med. 1977;77:268-276. Pubmed. [a] pp. 274-275 [b] p. 274 [c] p. 268 [d] p. 273 [e] p. 269 [f] p. 270
Covers all aspects of Adams and medicine. Sections include Adams' relation to the medical profession, his thoughts on health, his health history, and his encounters with smallpox.
Boller, Paul F. Jr. Presidential Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. ISBN 0-19-502915-1 @ Amazon [a] p. 36
Carey, A. H.; Chan, K. L.; Short, F.; White, D.; Williamson, R.; Franks, S. Evidence for a single gene effect causing polycystic ovaries and male pattern baldness. Clin. Endocr. 1993; 38: 653-658. Pubmed.
Carey AH,Waterworth D,Patel K,et al. Polycystic ovaries and premature male pattern baldness are associated with one allele of the steroid metabolism gene CYP17. Hum. Mol. Genet. 1994;3:1873-6.
Dugan, James. Bedlam in the boudoir. Colliers. 22 Feb. 1947; pages 17, 69-70.
Credibility is dubious. Just before a list of Presidents, the article states: "Twenty of the 32 Presidents ... are proved or believed on a thick web of circumstance to have been nocturnal nuisances in the White House."
Ferling, John; Braverman, Lewis E. John Adams's health reconsidered. William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series. 1998;LV(1):83-104. [a] p. 85 [b] p. 98 [c] p. 104 [d] p. 84
Thanks to Shawn Pirelli for this reference.
McKusick, Victor A. Mendelian Inheritance in Man. 9th ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. [a] MIM#109200 [b] MIM#184700
Later print editions have appeared, e.g. the 12th in 1998: Amazon (ISBN is 0801857422). The entire contents are freely available on the web as "Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM)." The online version is more current than the printed version.
Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of American. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981. ISBN 0-85011-033-5 @ Amazon
Enumerates the ancestors and descendants of American presidents up through Ronald Reagan.
Web page: http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/
(The Adams Family Papers)
The Massachusetts Historical Society has searchable transcriptions of Adams' letters and autobiography available online. Letters written by his wife are also included. One of variegate porphyria's hallmarks is urine that turns red after a time. On Dec. 15, 2003 Dr. Zebra searched for the following terms in the documents above, without finding any references to Adams' urine: "urin*", "make water", "piss*", "color" (which also included colour), and "discharg*".
Web page: http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/
(The Adams Family Papers)
Sea sickness page was viewed 11 March 2007 at: http://www.masshist.org/DIGITALADAMS/AEA/cfm/doc.cfm?id=D47&numrecs=3&archive=all&hi=on&rec=3&start=1&tag=text
The John Adams web page at the White House.
(1 match when checked in November 2003)

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John Adams: Mental Instability

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