R. Jens
Sep 1, 1952
Citations
0
Influential Citations
1
Citations
Journal
A.M.A. archives of neurology and psychiatry
Abstract
DESOXYCORTICOSTERONE acetate, 1 a synthetic steroid, has been used as theray, since 1948, for psychotic patients in a program of evaluation of its effect on the psychoses. A preliminary report was published in 1949. 2 The present report concerns the latest results of the study, namely, the recorded observations from August, 1949, to April, 1951. The project was undertaken on the basis of an assumption that patients with psychoses are subjected to repeated and overwhelming stress, which results in depletion. In this situation desoxycorticosterone acetate would supply a replacement therapy. This concept has been strengthened and enlarged by several publications, especially that by Hoagland and associates, 3 who have proposed that convulsive shock therapy acts theoretically by causing a release of endogenously produced corticotropin. Reiss and associates 4 have shown that certain psychotic patients who did not show an adrenocortical response to a test dose of corticotropin showed no improvement