Summary
This study was concerned with the relationship of autonomic responsiveness to process-reactive schizophrenia and impairment in abstract thinking. For this purpose, the systolic blood pressure responses to mecholyl were compared with ratings on the Elgin Prognostic Scale and with scores on a proverbs test. Previous work had apparently shown the existence of such a relationship but the link between autonomic responsiveness and process-reactive schizophrenia was confused by contradictory evidence. The results of this study are generally negative; no evidence of a relationship between autonomic responsiveness and the other two variables was found. However, subjects at the extremes of the Elgin scale tended to score differently on the proverbs test.
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This study was conducted at Marcy State Hospital, Marcy, N. Y., where both authors were employed part-time during the course of the investigation. Dr. Judson is on the faculty of Utica College of Syracuse University. Dr. Katahn, at Syracuse when this study was done, is now at Vanderbilt University. The authors wish to express their thanks to Anthony Sainz, M.D., director of research at Marcy State Hospital, for his cooperation in this part of the study and to Mrs. Beatrice Ferreri, research nurse, for collecting the data on the mecholyl test.
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Judson, A.J., Katahn, M. The relationship of autonomic responsiveness to process-reactive schizophrenia and abstract thinking. Psych Quar 37, 19–24 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01566888
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01566888