20 FARRERAS
neurologists, and by the close of the war “neuropsychiatry” had become
practically synonymous with “psychiatry,” with medical schools requir
ing psychiatric or neuropsychiatric divisions for national accreditation.^5
The encroachment of neurological surgery into medical neurology
also threatened to diminish or extinguish neurologists’ role in the field
of psychoneuroses.^6
In order to inform the VA’s Department of Medicine and Surgery
on the number of neurologists available to care for and rehabilitate dis
abled veterans, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology sent
out a questionnaire in 1947 to 900 diplomates in neurology and neuro
psychiatry. The results identified a paucity of trained neurologists (48
compared to 456 psychiatrists), with two thirds of the neurologists
compared to one third of the psychiatrists most likely to be found in
teaching institutions rather than in clinical or administrative positions.^7
Such a discrepancy was attributed to the subordination of neurology
to psychiatry by various medical departments of the Army, Navy, and
PHS during WWII. Following the war, government agencies adopted
a policy that increased full-time physicians’ salaries by 25 percent if
they were American Board diplomates, leading to a rush in psychi
atric certification.^8
In an effort to revive the almost extinct neurological field, Abe B.
Baker, chair of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Minnesota,
and a cohort of about 50 “young Turks” founded the American Acad
emy of Neurology (AAN) in 1948.^9 In contrast to the ANA, which had
a very limited membership and a participation dominated by older,
established members, the AAN proved to be a boost for the field.^10 It
provided an opportunity for younger neurologists, including residents,
to participate in a national neurological society; it set up committees
that would advance neurological training and that would influence
government officials with health programs; and it provided its mem
bers with affordable continuing education during its annual meetings.^11
Without a national institute devoted to neurological disorders, how
ever, neurological research could not flourish. Treatment was limited,
knowledge was sparse, and there was a paucity of expert physicians.^12
Citizen groups, representing research and care in multiple sclerosis,
cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, and blindness, pushed for