Changes in Catechol Amine Response to Successive Electric Convulsive Treatments

Abstract

Changes in sympathetic nervous system responses have been noted to accompany changes in psychological states during psychiatric treatment. Funkenstein, Greenblatt and Solomon, observing the blood pressure response to epinephrine and methacholine, have reported a change in blood pressure patterns on the part of patients who benefited from electric shock treatment (1). Gellhorn has presented evidence that improvement in the psychoses is associated with heightened sympathetic reactivity (2).