The reactivity of the iris muscles as an index of autonomic dysfunction in schizophrenic remission.

Abstract

Several parameters of the activity of the iris muscles of the eye in response to light and darkness were utilized as indices of parasympathetic-cholinergic and sympathetic-adrenergic mechanisms, respectively, in an effort to determine whether actively schizophrenic patients could be differentiated from patients evaluated as recovered or in clinical remission. When both groups of patients were compared to a normal control group on pupillary dilation, pupillary constriction, and the asymptotic variability of the light-adapted pupil, significant differences were found. Of the 27 patients who were actively psychotic, 93 per cent were found to be aberrant on one or more of the variables while 75 per cent of the psychotics in remission were also found to deviate significantly. Moreover, observed patterns of aberrant pupillary response were found to be almost identical in both groups of patients. Based upon the samples studied, it was concluded that 75 per cent of schizophrenics in remission, about to return to their families and communities, manifested patterns of aberrant autonomic dysfunction that were indistinguishable from the patterns manifested by actively psychotic patients.