The Relationship Between Blood Sugar and Lymphocyte Levels in Normal and Psychotic Subjects*

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Abstract
The present study was designed to determine whether the dysfunction in sugar metabolism was related to a depression in adrenal activity. The subjects included 21 normal persons (19 [male][male] and 2 [female][female]) who were free from organic disease and 35 [male] psychotic patients. All tests were made under basal conditions. The carbohydrate tolerance tests were performed by the Exton-Rose technic (3), in which 2 doses of 50 gs. of glucose dissolved in 275 ml. of water are ingested 30 mins. apart. Venous samples are obtained just before each glucose soln. is ingested and 30 mins. after the 2d. For the detn. of adrenocortical activity, simultaneous capillary (ear) samples were obtained for measuring the variation in the absolute lymphocyte levels. The studies of Dougherty and White (1) have indicated that discharge of cortical hormone results in a lymphopenia, while quiescence of the hormonal discharge is accompanied by a rise in the lymphocyte count. The results of the present investigation are in accord with the hypothesis that in this psychosis a high percentage of subjects suffer from an adrenocortical deficiency of a particular type as a result of which certain metabolic mechanisms are brought into play at a subnormal rate or not at all. The relationship between this physiologic characteristic and the existence or maintenance of the psychosis is not, as yet, clear. In the normal subjects the blood lymphocytes and blood sugar levels varied inversely, the correlation being[long dash].85 following the 2d dose of glucose. In psychotics, the correlation was much poorer, the coefficient being[long dash].29. Forty-three % of the patients showed an abnormal relationship of a positive nature. In general, the lymphopenic response to the admn. of glucose was less pronounced in the psychotic than in the normal subjects. It is concluded that the lesser lymphopenia and the positive or "abnormal" lymphocyte-glucose relationship indicate an adreno-cortical failure of a particular type.

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