Psychosomatic Medicine 11:9-24 (1949)
© 1949 American Psychosomatic Society

Physiologic Studies of Reaction to Stress in Anxiety and Early Schizophrenia

¹ Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry, McGill University Montreal, Canada

An unselected population of 75 patients was divided into three groups: A) 36 patients in whom anxiety was the predominant symptom; B) all other patients, except early schizophrenics (N = 28), and C) 11 early schizophrenics. Eleven normal control subjects were employed in order to provide a base line.

A standardized series of pain stimulations were presented by a Hardy-Wolff stimulator. Physiologic recordings were taken continuously throughout the test. Quantitative data obtained from analysis of records were compared with the clinical status of the case.

The results and major conclusions may be summarized as follows: A) In general, severity of anxiety appeared to be related to degree of physiologic disturbance. B) The clearest correspondence between degree of anxiety and degree of physiologic disturbance under stress was found with measurements reflecting striate muscle activity such as finger movement and neck muscle potentials. C) In general, the more severe the anxiety, the greater was the overreaction to pain stimulation. D) In terms of general level of responsiveness, the early schizophrenic group resembled the most anxious group more than any other. But in two quite different types of reaction, the schizophrenic group showed a relative lack of discrimination among the various intensities. This poor discrimination appeared to reflect (at a simple level) the inappropriateness of response, which is generally typical of schizophrenia.

Current theories of action and of anxiety were discussed in the light of present findings.

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