CONSIDERABLE controversy has been raised over a period of several years concerning the reactivity of the pituitary-adrenal cortex system in schizophrenic patients. Many papers have been presented, and much conflicting evidence has been offered.
In 1934 Freeman and Hoskins1 reported an elevated reactivity of schizophrenic patients with respect to the blood pressure-increasing effects of a glycerin extract of the adrenal cortex. Loehner,2 in 1940, remarked on similarities between schizophrenia and hypoadrenal states. The same theme was taken up by Haynes and Carlisle in 19413 and 19434 and by Williams5 in 1943. Meduna6 implicated abnormality of the adrenals in a "dysfunction of the carbohydrate regulating mechanism" of schizophrenia, a theory which he proposed in 1943. A series of studies was presented by Pincus, Hoagland, Elmadjian, Freeman, and associates7 between 1946 and 1952. These studies purported to demonstrate "a species of hypoadrenalism" present in schizophrenic