Glucose tolerance in disturbed schizophrenic patients.

HOSKINS 1 pointed out that the presence of an abnormal response to the Exton-Rose glucose tolerance tests in a high proportion of schizophrenic patients has been repeatedly confirmed. He stated the belief that "elaborate theorizing" concerning the reasons for these observations "would hardly be profitable in the current stage of our ignorance of the actual mechanisms involved." Braceland, Meduna and Vaichulis 2 asserted that there is a delay in the action of insulin in these patients, probably due to the anti-insulin factor demonstrated by Meduna, Gerty and Urse. 3 Braceland and his associates observed that abnormal curves were found oftenest in cases of the acute disease, but were not related to the fasting blood sugar or to the type of schizophrenia. In 1922 Lorenz 4 found hyperglycemic responses to glucose feeding in catatonic and emotionally upset schizophrenic patients. PRESENT INVESTIGATION During the war, a group of acutely psychotic enlisted men