Ephedrine Circulatory and Glycemic Reactions in the Psychoses

There have been numerous investigations of the neurovegetative states accompanying affective reactions. It has been demonstrated that the affective disorders are accompanied by measurable alterations in the sympathetic tonus; the manic-depressive psychoses show reactions indicative of sympathetic hypertonus and the schizophrenias give responses indicating states varying from obtundity of the sympathetic to frank vagotonia. Claude and his co-workers1found this neurovegetative loss of balance to be a most striking feature of the psychoses. They stated that pharmacologic tests and visceral reflexes elicit responses of an intensity found only in psychotic patients. The existence of a demonstrable vagotonia in the schizophrenias has been questioned by some authorities, who prefer to think of the catatonic and hebephrenic types as showing merely atony of the neurovegetative system as a whole. Cannon2has shown that vegetative disturbances attend affective experiences, and, if often enough repeated, these affective experiences may condition the responses