No abstract

ACCELERATION of blood-clotting time in patients with schizophrenic, mani c\x=req-\ depressive, or involutional psychosis has been recognized for many years; not all patients with these disorders exhibit this phenomena.1 Changes in clotting in relation to shock treatment have not been described; it was considered desirable, therefore, to study the effects of such treatments on the clotting of blood. MATERIAL AND METHODSClotting time was studied by the method of Lee and White 2 in 21 patients before, and again several days after, a course of insulin or electroshock treatment. The recalcified clotting time 2 was studied similarly in 40 other patients ; observations on the recalcified clotting time also were made in 20 of these patients immediately before, 10 minutes after, and 4 hours after, an electroshock treatment. The diagnoses included schizophrenia and manic-depressive and involutional psychoses. Forty-two of the 61 patients studied were women; the ages of the patients ranged from 18 to 68 years.Control observations consisted of 50 measurements of clotting time and 25 measurements of recalcified clotting time in normal subjects.