Psychosomatic Medicine 4:159-165 (1942)
© 1942 American Psychosomatic Society

A "Blind Test" of Sex-Hormone potency In Schizophrenic Patients

¹ Memorial Foundation for Neuro-Endocrine Research and the Research Service of the Worcester State Hospital, Worcester, Massachusetts

An experiment with 20 schizophrenic patients on the effectiveness of sex hormone medication has been described. Ten of the subjects were selected as showing much spontaneous sexual behavior and the other 10 as showing very little. The investigation was distinctively characterized by the use of anterior pituitary preparations in combination with the androgenic hormones and by carefully controlled procedures of observation. All subjects received injections, the control group being administered substances externally indistinguishable from the potent medication. None of the ward personnel or experimenters in direct contact with the patients had knowledge of the nature of the medication until after predictions on the basis of the observed results had been made. A special technique--the photoscope test--was devised for measuring changes in sexual interest quantitatively as a supplement to the more usual psychiatric interviews. The results of the experiment indicate that synthetic sex hormone medication has a discernible effect on schizophrenic patients and that this effect is predictable either on the basis of psychiatric interviews of a general kind or on the basis of the photoscope test. The two methods agreed to an extent definitely in excess of the chance probabilities since 12 correct predictions were jointly made instead of the 5 that would be statistically expected. While showing the apparent effectiveness of synthetic sex hormones in altering the behavior of schizophrenic patients, the present investigation is construed as also demonstrating the desirability of controlled techniques in the observation of such effects.

Note:
This investigation was aided by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.