Physiological responses to heat stress and ACTH of normal and schizophrenic subjects.

Abstract

No statistically significant differences were found in the physiological responses of chronically ill schizophrenics as compared with normal controls and nonschizophrenic patients. Moderate to severe heat was used for stress. The circulating eosinophils and lymphocytes were measured before, during, and after exposure to heat. The base values for circulating eosinophils and lymphocytes during and after heat stress were also similar in the 3 groups. In preliminary studies the uric acidcreatinine ratios were also not remarkable. It was found that even the small dose of 5 mg. of ACTH produced an eosinopenia comparable to that found in normal subjects. It should be noted that Hoagland and Pincus after studying more patients have concluded that lymphocyte response to ACTH and to heat stress does not reliably differentiate schizophrenics from nonschizophrenics. They have not reported data on eosinophils. However, they found that urinary 17-keto- steroids, sodium, potassium, uric acid, and cortins do differentiat...