Psychosomatic Medicine 16:516-525 (1954)
© 1954 American Psychosomatic Society

Effects of Cortisone on Psychiatric Patients

¹ Columbus Receiving Hospital Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Ohio State University

Studies on 16 subjects were made to determine whether behavioral changes occur as a result of cortisone therapy. All subjects were treated exactly alike, except that half the group were given tablets containing cortisone and half were given placebo. A battery of psychiatric and psychological tests was administered: two forms of interview; part of the Wechsler-Bellevue Adult Intelligence Scale; the Rorschach test; part of the Thematic Apperception test; the Level of Aspiration Board; and an incomplete sentence test. Tests were administered to subjects before medication, after 30 days of medication, and after a followup period of no medication. Selected tests were also administered between 72 and 120 hours after the onset of medication. No one in the hospital other than the physician assigning medication knew which subjects actually received cortisone. Dosage was decreased from 300 mg. on the first day and to 75 mg. on the fifth day, and remained constant thereafter until the thirtieth day.

Differences between the group receiving cortisone and the group receiving only a placebo in test behavior were minimal. Clinical judgments of five observers tended to discriminate between the groups more accurately than did the tests. Certain methodological difficulties are pointed out and suggestions made for future investigations.

Although the results are limited by the small number of subjects and the wide range of individual differences in the group, we may tentatively conclude that behavioral changes following the administration of cortisone do not occur in easily detectable form nor in a manner which is uniform from individual to individual.