Abstract
The present study was designed to investigate the thesis that both autonomic and psychological stress are related to the degree of parkinsonian symptom-severity, and further, that the psychological indices are related to autonomic malfunctioning. These hypotheses were largely confirmed for the sample used in this study. A moderate degree of association obtained between symptom-severity and the subjective perception of stress. A substantial degree of association was demonstrated between symptom-severity and autonomic stress. The subjective perception of stress and the psychologists' stress-adequacy ratings were, respectively, substantially and markedly related to autonomic stress. The results suggest the superiority of genotypic measures of stress such as conductance rates of change and ratings of stress-adequacy made by experienced psychologists. Finally, the results point up the potential significance of the subcortical underpinnings of psychological behavior.
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