Responses to sensory stimulation in certain psychosomatic disorders.

Abstract

Groups of patients suffering from asthma, atopic or localized neurodermatitis, arthritis, and hypertension were tested. Each subject received three types of sensory stimulation--cutaneous, muscular, and olfactory, in modified random order. Following each type of sensory stimulation the subject was requested to make a drawing of anything that came to mind. The subjects were then requested to describe and associate to their drawings. It was found by independent rating that cutaneous stimulation produced the strongest emotional responses in dermatitis patients, muscle stimulation in arthritics, and olfactory stimulation in asthmatics. Hypertensives did not react with outstandingly strong affect to stimulation of any of the sensory modalities tested. Thus, stimulation of the sensory modality appropriate to the particular psychosomatic disorder produces stronger affective responses than stimulation of other sensory modalities. As subjects rarely consciously recognized a connection between the stimulus and the drawings and associations to them, the linkage between them is considered to be at preconscious levels. Certain differing characteristics of the four groups studied, as elicited by these tests, have been discussed. General ideas concerning the relation of peripheral sensory stimulation and central responses to this stimulation have been suggested.