Gastric Secretory Functions in the Psychoses

In works on psychiatry, gastric and other secretions are generally assumed to be diminished in depressed or melancholic states, and increased (less clearly) in excited or manic states.1,2Less definite statements are made in regard to dementia praecox.3In many depressed patients, moreover, there are definite gastro-intestinal symptoms and curious somatic delusions which are well exemplified in some of our cases. They were aptly described by Clouston.4Independently of psychiatry the observations of physicians and physiologists5,6point to a marked influence of the mental, and particularly of the emotional, state on gastro-intestinal functions, both secretory and motor. While this supposed correlation between the mental and bodily functions seems to be reasonable, and clinically well substantiated, we have been able to find no studies by modern methods (fractional test meals and roentgenologic observations) confirmatory of these assumptions. The present study was undertaken to fill this gap in