Comparison of DPP oxidation curves of carefully-matched groups of schizophrenics and controls failed to reveal statistically significant differences. DPP oxidation is unrelated to mental illness per se, sex, length of hospitalization or differential diagnosis; it is related significantly to age and serum density.
These results suggest, in agreement with Horwitt, that the Akerfeldt reaction in its present form is so easily contaminated by nutritional and other artefacts as to render it useless as a practical aid in psychiatric diagnosis.
References
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AkerfeldtS.Oxidation of N, N'-Dimethyl-p-phenylene-diamine by serum from patients with mental disease.Science, 125:117–118, 1957.
2.
AprisonM. H., and DrewA. L.N, N'-Dimethyl-p-phenylene-diamine oxidation by serum from schizophrenic children.Science, 127:758, 1958.
