The influence of anxiety on gastric digestion

Abstract

The study of the influence of emotional strain on digestion in man offers some difficulties due to the fact that the emotions cannot be readily controlled, nor are the subjects of extreme emotion readily amenable to experimentation. We were, however, able to obtain an interesting illustration of the profound effect of mental anxiety on gastric digestion in the case of one of our subjects. The man was a first-year medical student who had previously served as a subject of gastric tests. He was given one hundred grams of fried chicken on the morning of an important examination in chemistry, and was asked to write out his answers during the course of the test. He was plainly worried over the outcome of the examination and of his year's work. The resultant effect upon gastric digestion in prolonging evacuation for over two hours with high intra-gastric acidity is charted in the figure. The

same chart gives the normal digestion curve for fried chicken on this subject as obtained a week later under the best mental conditions.