Abstract
Five groups of subjects (normal young persons, normal old persons, young persons with functional psychosis, persons with senile dementia and old schizophrenics), each comprising 5 men and 5 women were exposed to 12 stimuli, ranging from 230 to 425 mc./sec./cm.2 from a Hardy-Wolff-Goodell dolorimeter. Samples of blood and saliva were taken immediately before, immediately after and 3½ hours after the stimuli were applied. The sodium-potassium ratio was determined in the saliva and the number of eosinophils was counted in the blood.
Prior to stimulation, elderly schizophrenic patients had significantly higher eosinophil counts than all the other subjects, while young persons with functional psychoses had significantly higher counts than that of all subjects except the elderly schizophrenic patients. In response to stimulation with the dolorimeter, there was a significant decline immediately after the stimuli were applied, the decline persisting 3 to 4 hours later. However, the pattern of response did not appear to vary significantly from one group to the other.
In the case of the salivary Na/K, the elderly schizophrenic and the senile dementia patients had significantly higher values than the other groups prior to stimulation. This rise in the elderly mental patients was due mainly to increases in the salivary Na concentration, the salivary K concentration showing less marked increases. The salivary Na concentration of normal old subjects also increased when compared with that of the young subjects but there was a corresponding rise in the salivary K concentration leaving the Na/K ratio unchanged. Immediately following stimulation with the dolorimeter, the salivary Na/K declined significantly, and this decline was also observed 3 to 4 hours later. This pattern was observed when all groups were taken together, but was chiefly due to the responses of the 2 groups of old mental subjects, the remaining 3 groups showing no significant changes in this respect. In view of the inverse relationship between the change in the level of the salivary Na/K on the one hand and the change in the level of the salt-active hormones of the adrenal on the other, it is suggested that the elderly schizophrenic and senile dementia patient react to the stress of a pricking pain produced by the Hardy-Wolff-Goodell dolorimeter with an increased output of salt-active corticoids.