The history of a catatonic dog

Abstract

This article is a condensed life-history of a dog (“V3”) born and reared in the Pavlovian Laboratory and studied until his death in 1961. A detailed study was made of his pathologic development, his relations to people, and the effects of drugs. Measurements recorded were heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, 24-hour activity, sexual reflexes, general behavior. Although early experiments were done chiefly for recording and were not considered noxious or traumatic, this dog’s general development and symptoms seem to have been “constitutionally” rather than environmentally determined. His external behavior was strikingly similar to that of a catatonic patient-flexibilitas cerea, general immobility. Of particular interest was the “Effect of Person”: in the presence of all humans who confronted him he showed catatonic postures, cardiovascular disorders (tachycardia up to 200 beats/min., bradycardia to 12 beats/min., drop of blood pressure from 150 to 75 mm Hg, arrest of heart-beat for as long as 8 seconds), moribund poses. His response to drugs illustrated the specificity to a definite “constitutional type”: sexual activity markedly increased by alcohol and rarely present except after administration of alcohol; no improvement after administration of tranquilizers, except alcohol and meprobamate, which made him act like a normal dog in behavior and in relations to people. His symptoms and reactions to both people and drugs were generally opposite to those of another dog, “Nick”, studied over his life span: Nick showed excessive activity in physiologic systems; hyperactivity (running); generally, improvement through “Effect of Person”; sexual inhibition with alcohol. Observations of the two dogs suggest that symptoms as well as reactions to drugs are the result of the “type” rather than the procedure used, that perhaps psychopathologic symptoms are due more to inborn constitution than to “conflict” (“collision”) between excitation and inhibition, and that neurotic or psychotic symptoms may not interfere with longevity-Nick lived to be 14 years old and died fighting; V3, who also spent most of his life in the laboratory, died at the age of 14.