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Psychosomatic Medicine 16:393-397 (1954)
© 1954 American Psychosomatic Society

Capillary Response to Emotion

JENO KRAMAR M.D.1, DWAINE J. PEETZ M.D.1, and HARRY H. McCARTHY M.D.1

1 Departments of Pediatrics and Surgery, The Creighton University School of Medicine Omaha, Nebraska

A study of the effect of emotional factors upon the capillaries by means of observations on the capillary resistance revealed two types of capillary response: a short immediate reaction and a response of long duration. The first seems to be principally of nervous, the second principally of hormonal origin.

The immediate reaction studied in the human being and in various laboratory animals consists of a spasm of the precapillary arterioles resulting in an ischemic area at the site where the suction for testing the capillary resistance was applied. During this precapillary spasm the actual level of the capillary resistance is camouflaged and can hardly be evaluated. Recognition of this condition is essential in any study of the capillary resistance. As this phenomenon was found not only in obviously nervous, vasolabile individuals but sometimes also in apparently stable ones, it is suggested that observation of the behavior of the capillaries in the course of the capillary resistance test may be used for detection of a latent tendency to vasospasm.

Emotional stress is capable of eliciting a prolonged change in the capillary resistance of the albino rat which is in every respect similar to the change found following various types of somatic stress. Four phases may be distinguished in this capillary response: initial rise of the capillary resistance, a sudden drop, a period of abnormally low resistance, restoration to normal. The entire response has an average duration of 30 days. On the basis of previous studies of the hormonal regulation of the capillary resistance it is believed that the first phase is due to an increased pituitary-adrenocortical activity, the second and third (termed "capillary crisis") to a refractory state of the adrenal cortex not related primarily to the pituitary. These findings may be regarded as a contribution to our knowledge of psychosomatic derailments and, specifically, to that of the emotional influence on the endocrine system.

Submitted on June 29, 1953




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H. H. McCARTHY, J. KRAMAR, V. W. MEYERS, N. DIETZ, and J. W. WILLIAMS
Capillary Resistance in Response to Anesthesia and Surgery: Special Reference to Cardiac Arrest
Arch Surg, June 1, 1957; 74(6): 908 - 910.
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