Psychosomatic Medicine 24:427-458 (1962)
© 1962 American Psychosomatic Society

Changes in Hydrochloric Acid Secretion in a Patient with a Gastric Fistula during Intensive Psychotherapy

¹ Department of Psychiatry, the Gastroenterology Service and the Gastroenterology Research Laboratory, The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, N. Y.

After preliminary observation had shown the hydrochloric acid secretion of the stomach of a 60-year-old woman with a gastric fistula to be at persistently high normal levels, observations of the gastric secretions through the fistulous opening were made while the patient was receiving, simultaneously, although separately, intensive psychotherapy. Eight months after the psychotherapy was begun, the high normal level of the gastric hydrochloric acid dropped abruptly and remained at a low level for 12 months. A possible explanation is suggested, the methodology is described, and the effects of various parameters, especially the physiologic observations, upon the psychotherapy are noted. The difficulty in accurately correlating the physiological and the psychological data, especially with regard to the time factor, appears to indicate limitations in the method of making physiologic observations at the same time the patient is receiving psychotherapy.