Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T20:48:08.022Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sodium Amytal and Eyelid Conditioning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

C. M. Franks  and
S. G. Laverty
C. M. Franks
Affiliation:
University of London, Institute of Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital
S. G. Laverty
Affiliation:
University of London, Institute of Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Sodium amytal has long been regarded as a physiologically inhibiting drug. It is widely used in clinical practice as a sedative and sleep-producing drug, although all of its precise pharmacological effects are not definitely established. It has also been suggested that sodium amytal produces an increase in extra-version, as manifest by an increase in communicativeness, etc. Thus Lindemann (1932) found that after receiving amytal, normal subjects report feeling of increased well-being, co-operativeness, serenity and friendship. Sodium amytal is also used for the reduction of manifest anxiety. Sargant and Slater (1954) cite many examples of its use for this purpose with neurotic subjects; they describe it as useful for “deconditioning to situations likely to produce anxiety”. Masserman (1938) reports that amytal apparently reduces the sympathetic activity in cats which normally results from faradic stimulation from the hypothalamus. It has also been shown to abolish conditioned fear responses in kittens (Bailey and Miller, 1952).

The literature related to conditioning is enormous. Hilgard and Marquis (1940) alone have a 973 item reference list at the end of their book. It has been established that anxiety neurotics or anxious subjects condition better than normals (e.g. Welch and Kubis, 1947a, 1947b; Taylor, 1951; Spence and Taylor, 1953; Spence and Farber, 1953). In the terminology of Eysenck (1952, 1953), in which introversion–extraversion and neuroticism are two orthogonal dimensions, anxiety neurotics are part of the groups known as Dysthymics, i.e. they have high scores on both the introversion end of the introversion–extraversion dimension and on the dimension of neuroticism. On the other hand hysterics and psychopaths have been shown to have high scores on the extraversion end of the introversion–extraversion dimension and on the dimension of neuroticism. Figure 1 will make this clear.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 101 , Issue 424 , July 1955 , pp. 654 - 663
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1955 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bailey, C. J., and Miller, N. E., “The Effect of Sodium Amytal on Approach-Avoidance conflict in Cats”, J. comp. and physiol. Psychol., 1952, 45, 205–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brazier, Mary A. B., and Finesinger, J. E., “Action of Barbiturates on the Cerebral Cortex”, A.M.A. Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1945, 53, 51–58.Google Scholar
Cochran, W. G., and Cox, Gertrude M., Experimental Designs, 1950. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J., The Scientific Study of Personality, 1952. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.Google Scholar
Idem , The Structure of Human Personality, 1953. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd.Google Scholar
Franks, C. M., An Experimental Study of Conditioning as Related to Mental Abnormality, 1954. Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. London Library.Google Scholar
Idem , “Conditioning and Personality”, 1955a. To appear in J. abnorm. soc. Psychol. Google Scholar
Idem , “The Establishment of a Conditioning Laboratory for the Investigation of Personality and Cortical Functioning”, 1955b. To appear in Nature.Google Scholar
Franks, C. M., and Withers, W. C. R., “Photoelectric Recording of Eyelid Movements”, 1955. To appear in Amer. J. Psychol. Google Scholar
Goodman, L., and Gilman, A., The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 1941. New York: The MacMillan Co. Inc.Google Scholar
Guilford, J. P., An Inventory of Factors S T D C R, 1940. Stanford, Calif. Privately printed.Google Scholar
Idem and Guilford, R. B., “Personality Factors D R T and A”, J. abnorm, soc. Psychol., 1939, 34, 21–36.Google Scholar
Hilgard, E. R., and Marquis, D. G., Conditioning and Learning, 1940. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.Google Scholar
Humphreys, L. G., “Measures of Strength of Conditioned Eyelid Responses”, J. gen. Psychol., 1943, 29, 101–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laverty, S. G., and Franks, C. M., “Sodium Amytal and Behaviour in Neurotic Subjects”, 1955. (To appear.) Google Scholar
Lewis, A. J., “War Psychiatry”, in Medical Annual, 1941. London: Simpkin Marshall.Google Scholar
Lindemann, E., “Psychological Changes in Normal and Abnormal Individuals under the Influence of Sodium Amytal”, Amer. J. Psychiat., 1932, 11, 1083–1091.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masserman, J. H., “Destruction of the Hypothalamus in Cats: effects on Activity of the Central Nervous System and its Reaction to Sodium Amytal”, A.M.A. Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1938, 39, 1250–1271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlov, I. P., Conditioned Reflexes (transl. by Anrep, C. V.), 1927. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Idem , Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes, Vol. I (transl. by Gantt, W. H.), 1928. London: Laurence and Wishart, Ltd.Google Scholar
Idem , Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes, Vol. 2 (transl. by Gantt, W. H.), 1941. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Sargant, W., and Slater, E., An Introduction to Physical Methods of Treatment in Psychiatry, 1954. Edinburgh and London: E. and S. Livingstone, Ltd.Google Scholar
Spence, K. W., and Farber, I. E., “Conditioning and Extinction as a Function of Anxiety”, J. exp. Psychol., 1953, 45, 116–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spence, K. W., and Taylor, Janet, “Anxiety and Strength of the UCS as determiners of the Amount of Eyelid Conditioning”, J. exp. Psychol., 1951, 42, 183–188.Google Scholar
Idem , “The Relation of Conditioned Response Strength to Anxiety in Normal, Neurotic and Psychotic Subjects”, J. exp. Psychol., 1953, 45, 265–272.Google Scholar
Taylor, Janet, “The Relationship of Anxiety to the Conditioned Eyelid Response”, J. exp. Psychol., 1951, 41, 81–91.Google Scholar
Idem and Spence, K. W., “The Relationship of Anxiety to Performance in Serial Learning”, J. exp. Psychol., 1952, 44, 61–64.Google Scholar
Thorner, M. W., “The Psycho-Pharmacology of Sodium Amytal”, J. nerv. ment. Dis., 1935, 81, 161–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welch, L., and Kubis, J., “The effect of Anxiety on the Conditioning Rate and Stability of the P.G.R.”, J. Psychol., 1947a, 23, 83–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idem , “Conditioned P.G.R. (Psychogalvanic Response) in States of Pathological Anxiety”, J. nerv. ment. Dis., 1947b, 105, 372–381.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.