Dr. Arthur Percy Noyes, superintendent of the Rhode Island State Hospital for psychiatric care, made a public announcement on June 20, 1934. A very rare disease had just been diagnosed at the Cranston facility, the patient being only the seventh person in the country known to suffer from it. First reported in 1922, it was referred to as "stones in the brain" and Noyes was fascinated.

The 54-year-old physician, a native of New Hampshire, had graduated from Kimball Union Academy in that state before going on to Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania medical School. He was employed by the City Hospital of New York, the Boston Psychopathic Hospital and St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington DC before arriving in Rhode Island with his wife on March 1, 1929 to assume the role of superintendent at the State Hospital. The facility's former superintendent, Dr. Ransom Harvey Sartwell, had been fatally shot by one of the patients on Jan. 11 of that year.

Having served as president of the American Psychiatric Institution, the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society and the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society, Noyes regarded institutions for the mentally ill as grounds not only for care, but for medical research and training. He was known to utilize insulin shock therapy on the bodies of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, repeatedly injecting the afflicted with large doses of insulin until a temporary coma was induced. Noyes stated that his studies regarding this type of therapy, which was introduced in 1927, showed a high success rate of reducing the effects of schizophrenia.

Noyes also used metrazol therapy on his patients, high doses of the drug being administered until convulsions resulted. He reported that the therapy helped patients suffering from depression. According to his records, a large percentage of patients saw either improvement or complete recovery from their condition when these two treatments were applied.

Having written and published textbooks which were being used in medical schools, Noyes also developed educational curriculums for such schools and modernized the care at the facilities where he was employed. Those in the medical community tended to listen when Noyes spoke, therefore it was an exciting prospect for the doctor to be personally analyzing a very rare ailment.

The patient diagnosed with stones in the brain had been a 37-year-old man suffering from a mild mental illness. He had been a patient at the State Hospital for several years when an X-ray determined that he seemed to possess what looked like stones inside his head. When the man died, an autopsy confirmed the theory.

Comprised of bony areas of intracerebral calcification, the matter appears as small stones inside the brain when medically imaged. The phenomenon is still rare but has been studied in much more depth since Noyes made his announcement. The study of a 40-year-old female with the diagnoses showed that she had been suffering for 14 years from episodes of headache, a feeling of pressure and shortness of breath. She stated that the earlier episodes usually occurred at night, every few months, and then increased in occurrence and included hallucinations, involuntary screaming, foaming at the mouth and, finally, a loss of consciousness. A scan of her skull showed that she had 7 calcifications adhered to her brain.

A 47-year-old woman who suffered with seizures, headaches and blurred vision, was found to have several large calcifications distributed throughout the left hemisphere of her brain.

Despite the two noted cases above, studies show that calcium build-up in the brain, causing these stones, rarely occurs before the age of 50. Most diagnosed with the ailment are near the age of 70. Ongoing studies show there may be a link to celiac disease and Alzheimer’s. It’s believed that more people suffer from stones in the brain than we are led to believe due to the fact that one can have the affliction and have no symptoms. For those who do have symptoms, the only current treatment is anti-seizure medication.

Noyes remained working, studying and teaching at the Rhode Island State Hospital until 1936 when he left to take over as superintendent at the state psychiatric hospital in Pennsylvania. He retired from that facility 19 years later at the age of 74.

Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.