Reproducibility of the Mecholyl Test

-HE ROLE of the autonomic nervous sys-tem in reactions of the organism to emo-tions has been generally accepted since the earliest conceptions of the anatomic indi-viduality of the vegetative nervous system.13 Since the systolic blood pressure is a readily measurable parameter that is controlled at least in part by the autonomic nervous sys-tem, it is reasonable that efforts be made to correlate changes in the autonomic nervous system and, by extension, the emotions with the reactivity of the system that controls the systolic blood pressure. Such a correla-tion has been employed by many observers in an effort to classify psychiatric patients. In 1943, Altman et at.2 noted that the blood pressure fall following an injection of Mecholyl could be correlated with some psychiatric states. Funkenstein and his co-workers7 ' 8 elaborated on this concept and developed the test that generally bears his name. The specific test which they de-scribed involved the injection of both Mecholyl and epinephrine and the sub-sequent classification of the blood pressure responses. Gellhorn,9 on the basis of animal experiments was able to demonstrate the presence of central sympathetic tone, the level of which could be evaluated by th