"Experimental Neurosis" Resulting from Semistarvation in Man

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Abstract
In the course of an expt. in which 36 volunteer subjects went through a severe period of semistarvation, all subjects developed emotional and personality symptoms which disappeared after a period of controlled rehabilitation. The semi-starvation period (1570 calories daily intake) lasted for 6 mos., and the men lost on the avg. 25% of their original body wt. Psychological data were obtained during the course of the expt. by autobiographies, diaries, formal interview, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. All subjects showed intense preoccupations with thoughts of food, increase in irritability, tendency to depression and social introversion, and a decrease in self-initiated activity and sexual drive. In addition, 9 of the 36 subjects developed symptoms that were more severe than the usual semistarvation deterioration and which are of special interest from a neuropsychiatric point of view. Two men suffered from paresthesias of probable physiologic origin, one from sensory and motor disturbances of an hysterical nature. In 4 subjects there was character disintegration and neurosis. These men were unable to adhere to the diet regimen and one developed a pathologic reaction bordering on psychosis. One subject showed an exaggeration of an incipient cyclothymic tendency, and one developed an hysteroid reaction that led to self-mutilation. Case histories of these 9 subjects are presented and compared with the case history of a subject showing the more usual psychological effects of semistarvation.

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