Psychosomatic Medicine 28:789-794 (1966)
© 1966 American Psychosomatic Society

Age, Base Blood Pressure, Diagnosis, and Mecholyl Test Response

¹ Medical Services and the Research departments, Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, N. Y.

Systolic blood pressure responses to the injection of methacholine (Mecholyl responses) of 338 psychiatric patients were correlated with age, psychiatric diagnosis, and base blood pressure. The Mecholyl area was significantly correlated with age, diagnosis, and base blood pressure. Age proved to be more effective in discriminating between diagnoses than was base blood pressure, which was more effective than Mecholyl area (planimetrically determined from a graph). Standardization techniques for truncation of range indicated that the correlation of Mecholyl area with age within diagnoses held for psychotics, but was not observed in character disorders. When age was partialled out, the correlations between diagnosis and Mecholyl area were no longer significant.