PATTERNS OF PUPILLARY DILATATION AND CONSTRICTION IN PSYCHOTIC ADULTS AND AUTISTIC CHILDREN

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Abstract
Results of these studies indicate that functionally psychotic adults and autistic children have as a concomitant of their illness a clearly defined peripheral autonomic dysfunction. That the adult psychotic may be classified into discrete categories of dilatation and constriction throws reasonable doubt upon the current quest for a single chemical panacea for a disease state that is apparently heterogeneous. The more logical alternative proposed is that each pattern of adrenergic-cholinergic activity may require a specific combination of drugs which differentially affect the level of activity of either or both components of the autonomic nervous system. The elaboration of a pattern of peripheral autonomic dysfunction in autistic children, and the specification of the differences in these patterns between normal adults and normal children by means of measurements of pupillary reactivity, suggest the need for additional studies in the ontology of autonomic responsivity.

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