Charles Bradley (medical doctor)

This article is about the American physician. For other uses, see Charles Bradley.

Charles Bradley (December 1, 1902 – May 31, 1979) was a Rhode Island physician and child psychiatrist who was best known for the serendipitous discovery that the use of Benzedrine in children with behavior problems resulted in an improvement in their performance in a residential setting. Investigations leading from his work eventually led to the current pharmaceutical use of stimulant medication in treatment of ADHD.

Early life and education

Charles was born into the semi-notable Bradley family and as such he was a grand-nephew of George Bradley. George Bradley and his wife Helen Bradley left in their last will instructions and funds to establish the Emma Pendleton Bradley hospital, a children's psychiatric hospital named after George's and Helen's terminally ill daughter, which is notable as the first American children's psychiatric hospital. Bradley grew up in Providence, Rhode Island and his father died of an illness when Charles was 8. During his studies at a Philadelphia hospital he earned an M.D. degree and in 1930 Bradley married the scientific researcher Helen Katherine Teale in Massachusetts.

Medical career and later life

At least partly because of Charles' recognizable name, he was hired by the Bradley's hospital director, Arthur Ruggles, in 1932, just a year after the hospital was created. Ruggles pushed Bradley to pursue neurology and pediatrics instead of physical education and a year later, in 1933, Charles became the hospitals second director, following Arthur. Later in 1943, after the previous hospitals superintendent went into retirement, he once again attained a higher position, this time of superintendent. On April 9th, 1948 Bradley left the hospital and joined Oregon Medical School as a professor where he founded and was a director of the child psychiatry department.

Research

Bradley conducted extensive, neurological workups on the patients of Bradley hospital while he was employed there. Included in the workups was pneumoencephalography, a procedure which often led to severe headaches which Dr. Bradley assumed, resulted from the loss of spinal fluid. In an attempt to stimulate the choroid plexus and produce spinal fluid he prescribed Benzedrine. It was noted by the teachers and nurses who cared for the children and Bradley 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 academic performance. Following these events Dr. Bradley published several works regarding the behavioral effects of Benzedrine in well known journals receiving moderate recognition, however it took 25 years before anyone attempted to replicate his results and another 25 before Benzedrine became a readily available medicine.

Charles Bradley was also credited with the invention of a device to make pneumoencephalography in children easier and wrote extensively on childhood schizophrenia. He was also a leader in the use of residential treatment for children with behavioral problems.