Comparison of Anxiety in Thyrotoxic and Neurotic Patients Using Skin Conductance Measurements

SUMMARY The experiment reported in this paper was designed to examine the belief that the mood state (anxiety) associated with thyrotoxicosis was phenomenologically similar to the anxiety occurring in functional (neurotic) states. For this purpose a psychophysiological technique was used which has been shown to be reliable and objective in the differentiation of neurotically anxious patients. It was shown that, unlike the situation in patients with neurotic anxiety states, the psychogalvanic reflex of patients with thyrotoxicosis habituated to a repeated standard stimulus and an initially high rate of spontaneous fluctuations soon settled. The abnormality detected in the thyrotoxic patients consisted of increased reactivity or responsivity and hyperarousal. Although patients with neurotic anxiety states are chronically hyperaroused, the relation of this hyperarousal to the mode of habituation of their psychogalvanic reflex differs from that found for thyrotoxic patients. It seems, therefore, most unlikely that the hyperarousal associated with thyrotoxicosis shares a common origin and mechanism with the hyperarousal occurring in functional (neurotic) anxiety states.