The electrodermal activity (EDA) in 59 depressive patients was investigated during stimulation with neutral tone stimuli. The patients were classified according to six dichotomies: 1) dysthymic disorder vs major depressive episode (DSM-III); 2) melancholic vs nonmelancholic major depressive episode (DSM-III); 3) endogenous vs nonendogenous (Newcastle scale); 4) high vs low inhibition; 5) psychomotor inhibition vs agitation; and 6) indices of high vs low hypothalamic disturbance. The low EDA usually found in depressive patients seems to be more pronounced in endogenous patients and in patients with symptoms of inhibition. Relationships between indices of hypothalamic dysfunction and low EDA were found, but lacked homogeneity. Early debut and long duration of current depression were related to small magnitude of the skin conductance response.

A group of 59 depressive in- and outpatients displayed statistically significantly subnormal electrodermal activity (EDA) according to the skin conductance level, the skin conductance response magnitude, the skin conductance response rate, and the index of nonresponding during neutral tone stimulation, compared to 59 mentally and somatically healthy subjects, individually matched for age and sex. Comparisons between 20 antidepressant medicated and 20 unmedicated patients, matched for age, and comparisons between 21 drug-free patients and 10 patients medicated exclusively with antidepressants yielded no statistically significant difference in any EDA variable. However, all the electrodermal central values were somewhat lower in the medicated patients, possibly an effect of greater severity of symptoms. The present and previous findings offer strong support to the hypothesis of a subnormal function of the electrodermal activity in groups of depressive patients.

There is a general agreement about the less disruptive effect on memory and the shorter post-treatment confusion after unilateral electroconvulsive therapy (UNI-ECT) as compared with the traditional bifrontotemporal ECT (BI-ECT). However, there are divergent opinions about its therapeutic efficacy.

Interpreting the orienting response as a call for controlled processing resources, we tested the hypothesis that poor performance among schizophrenics is associated with less orienting to task-relevant stimuli and more orienting to task-irrelevant stimuli. Thirty-two schizophrenics and 32 age-and sexmatched controls were exposed to a signaled reaction time task in which one tone was followed by an imperative noise stimulus and a different tone signaled nothing. During one phase of the experiment, distracting visual stimuli were presented both between and during reaction time trials. Orienting was assessed by measurement of skin conductance, heart rate, and finger pulse volume responses. The controls differentiated between the signal and nonsignal tones in all measures and showed rapid habituation to the distracting visual stimuli. The schizophrenics showed very slow reaction times, less overall responding than the control group, and very limited differential responses to signal and nonsignal stimuli. For the responses to visual distractors, however, the schizophrenics showed significantly slower habituation than the controls, confirming their inefficient orienting style. 326This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

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