Effects of ACTH and cortisone on mood and mentation.

A: ALTERATION in the emotional state of patients treated for various illnesses with ACTH or cortisone has been noted since therapy with these hormones was begun; and even previously attention had been paid to the psychoses which occurred in patients suffering either from deficiency or excess of adrenal cortical hormones—in Addison's disease and Cushing's syndrome. Further interest in the effect of ACTH and cortisone upon emotional reactivity has been stimulated by the experiments of Hoagland and Pincus (7, 14) which indicate that schizophrenic subjects do not show normal responsiveness of the adrenal cortical hormones to ACTH or to stress: findings which Altschule has been unable to validate. Hoefer and Glaser have clearly shown that ACTH alters the activity of the central nervous system by the demonstration of clear-cut electroencephalographic changes in 13 out of 15 patients receiving ACTH therapy. Castor and his' co-workers, in an attempt to clarify the basis for the emotional changes accompanying ACTH and cortisone therapy, produced changes in the para-