Adrenal Activity in Aged SciiizoniRENics 285 



role in this varying" type of reaction since there is a hi,<»iily 

 negative relationship {r= —0-91) between the initial level 

 and the absolute change at the three-hour point. Thus, the 

 patients with their low values would show a rise and the 

 normal subjects with their higher values would show a fall. 

 Again, as in the case following ACTH injection, we may say 

 that the initially low level of urinary phosphates is a charac- 

 teristic of schizophrenia but the reaction to the stress on 

 stimulus is largely dependent on that level and may have 

 little bearing on the dysfunction in the psychosis. 



Analysis of the data for inter-relationships between various 

 functions again, as in the case of ACTH, proved disappointing. 

 No significant co-variance was noted between any of the 

 variables studied. 



Discussion 



It may be said in general that elderly schizophrenic patients 

 exhibit the same differences from elderly normal subjects 

 that young patients do from young normal individuals. There 

 is less tendency in the old to show the increases in ketosteroid 

 and corticoid excretion than in the young, but the differences 

 in responses in the mineral elements are essentially identical 

 throughout the life-span. It is probably true that the renal 

 mechanisms in the aged play a greater role in the responsivity 

 of the organism to the two stress situations employed, but 

 this fact does not obviate the persistence of differential 

 responses between the normal and schizophrenic subjects. 



The maintenance of these abnormalities in the ageing 

 schizophrenic group poses an interesting problem as to 

 whether the adrenal cortex really suffers from exhaustion 

 over the many years in which these patients have experienced 

 a profound psychotic reaction. It may be, however, that the 

 sheltering of such patients from the stresses of existence out- 

 side may minimize the stimulating effect upon the adrenal 

 cortex of the constant emotional reaction. In any case, it is 

 evident that the physiological defects in these elderly schizo- 

 phrenic patients, whatever their cause, have no deleterious 

 effects upon the life expectancy of such subjects. 



