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Psychosomatic Medicine 11:74-101 (1949)
© 1949 American Psychosomatic Society

A Study of Pituitary-Adrenocortical Function in Normal and Psychotic Men

GREGORY PINCUS Sc.D.1, HUDSON HOAGLAND PH.D., Sc.D.1, HARRY FREEMAN M.D.1, FRED ELMADJIAN M.D.1, and LOUISE P. ROMANOFF 1

1 Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, Shrewsbury, Mass. the Research Service of the Worcester State Hospital Worcester, Mass., and the Department of Physiology, Tufts Medical School

Report is made of measurement of certain blood and urine constituents determined before and after four tests designed to evoke endogenous adrenocortical activity (glucose administration, pursuitmeter operation, target-ball frustration test, adrenocorticotrophin [ACTH] administration) and one test involving the administration of active corticosteroids (ACE). Thirty-six normal men and 34 psychotic men underwent one or more of these tests. Of these procedures the target-ball frustration test proved to be least effective in eliciting blood and urine changes indicative of adrenocortical activity. Data significantly indicative of adrenal cortex activation were obtained for the normal men in the glucose tolerance, pursuit-meter and ACTH tests whereas significant evidence of responsivity in the patients' data occurred only in the lymphocyte response to glucose administration. The behavior of the indices of adrenocortical function following ACE was similar in the two groups and they could not be significantly differentiated. It is deduced that the responsivity to ACE is similar in the two groups, but that activation of endogenous adrenocortical secretion generally fails in the psychotic subjects. Evidence is thus provided of a species of hypoadrenalism in the psychotic subjects. The significance of this "hypoadrenalism" is discussed.




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