Psychosomatic Medicine 27:80-85 (1965)
© 1965 American Psychosomatic Society

The Urinary Output of Adrenalin and Noradrenalin During Pleasant and Unpleasant Emotional States

A preliminary report

¹ Department of Medicine, the Department of Psychiatry, and the Department of Endocrinology, Karolinska sjukhuset, and the Department of Physiology, Karolinska institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

In a strictly standardized experimental setting, 20 healthy female office clerks were shown 4 entirely different types of motion pictures on 4 consecutive days. Bland natural-scenery films lowered the urinary catecholamines significantly. An aggression-provoking film and an amusing one were accompanied by similar and significant increases in adrenalin excretion and similar adrenalin/noradrenalin ratios. Obviously, emotional responses rated by the subjects as pleasant may also evoke increased sympathetico-adrenomedullary activity. An anxiety-provoking film raised the excretion levels not only of adrenalin, but also of noradrenalin, significantly above the levels obtained in all 3 previous films. A positive correlation exists between the intensity of emotional arousal, whatever its quality, and the urinary excretion of adrenalin and possibly of noradrenalin.

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