Psychosomatic Medicine 23:392-399 (1961)
© 1961 American Psychosomatic Society

An Investigation of Autonomic Balance in Tuberculous Patients

¹ Humboldt State College, Arcata Calif.

The study described in this article was designed to help answer the question of whether autonomic nervous system function in tuberculous patients differs from that found for other groups. One hundred and five tuberculous inpatient and outpatient subjects were given autonomic tests during the resting state. Autonomic nervous system function in the tuberculous patients differed from that reported for other groups. Comparisons of means of discrete autonomic variables for tuberculous patients with those for normal, psychoneurotic, schizophrenic, peptic ulcer, cancer, and postoperative vagotomy patients revealed statistically significant differences in each instance. Comparisons of mean tuberculous autonomic factor () scores with those of normal, schizophrenic, peptic ulcer, cancer, and postoperative patients groups showed that the former differ significantly from all except the schizophrenic scores in that they reflect an apparent dominance of the sympathetic nervous system. Since in patients and outpatients did not differ in this respect, the possible significance of autonomic imbalance in the etiology of tuberculosis is suggested.