DIGESTIVE SYMPTOMS IN CHRONIC SUPRARENAL INSUFFICIENCY (ADDISON’S DISEASE)

We have studied the digestive disturbances in a series of 160 certain cases of Addison’s disease. The frequency of these troubles is extraordinary, since normal findings were obtained in only 12 per cent of the cases. Intense Hunger. In some of the classical works on Addison’s disease, mention is made of intense, even painful, hunger: Kussmaul (1), Auerbeck (2), Bittorff (3). Three of our patients mentioned this symptom spontaneously, either as a permanent symptom or as a post-prandial crisis. In our three cases, this hunger occurred at the beginning of the disease, disappeared later and in two cases changed to anorexia. We have sometimes imagined that this symptom could be related to the hypoglycemia which is frequent in Addison’s disease. We have recently shown that the disturbance of the regulating mechanism of the carbohydrates in this disease is sometimes shown by a relative post-prandial hypermsulinism (due to lack of compensatory secretion of adrenalin) which is clinically manifested by the usual h...