[1] Doyle ranked "The Adventure of the Resident Patient" eighteenth in a list of his nineteen favourite Sherlock Holmes stories.

[2] Holmes and Watson are consulted by Dr. Percy Trevelyan, a young general practitioner whose specialty is neurological disorders.

Two years prior, having been a brilliant student but lacking the money to set up in practice, Trevelyan agreed to a strange business proposition put forward by a Mr. Blessington.

However, some months ago, Blessington panicked after claiming to have read a newspaper article about a nearby burglary; he insisted upon stronger locks and other stringent security measures, and also refused to leave the house for several weeks, only recently resuming his habit of taking his evening walk.

Secondly, the evening before Trevelyan's visit to Holmes, an elderly Russian nobleman and his son consulted the doctor, due to the father's complaint of catalepsy.

After the pair left, Blessington returned from his walk, found footprints in his room, and entered into a state of panic again, insisting Trevelyan go and fetch Holmes to his aid.

He instead tries to pretend he is afraid they are unknown burglars, coming after the fortune he keeps in the chest at the foot of his bed (not trusting bankers).

Sutton changed his name to Blessington and moved in with Dr. Trevelyan to hide from them; his first panic had been when he read of their unexpectedly early release from prison.

The case against the page breaks down for lack of evidence, and the three murderers are suspected to have died in the wreck of the ship Nora Creina off the Portuguese coast.

It starred Eille Norwood as Holmes and Hubert Willis as Watson, and featured Judd Green as Blessington.

[6] The Granada television adaptation of the canon starring Jeremy Brett featured an episode based on this story.