There are few who do not feel nervous or even apprehensive as they undergo ental treatment. The skin temperature biofeedback was applied in order to carry out treatment more smoothly and in a more relaxed atmosphere.The present study is concerned with changes in skin temperature elicited by dental procedures, particularly the injection of anesthetics in the oral cavity. The subjects consisted of 30 general outpatients receiving treatment at the Department of Oral Surgery of Tokyo Medical College Hospital.The results were as follows : (1) Skin temperature decreased as an injection was initiated in 80% of the patients. Out of these patients, 3/4 showed a rise in temperature 30 sec. after the termination of the injection. (2) An evaluation of the degree of anxiety was given and a comparison was made between the groups of 7 patients each with the highest and lowest degrees of anxiety about dental treatment. The fall in skin temperature was greater in the highly anxious group than in the less anxious group. In some patients of the less anxious group, skin temperature was observed elevating at the first temperature measurement after the initiation of the injection (at 10 sec. post-initiation) without subsequently decreasing.The above results suggest that skin temperature can serve as a useful indicator for. the patient's response to dental procedures.

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In this study, thirty-six depressive patients were administered Egogram Questionnaires twice : that is, 1) at the severely stage, and 2) at much improved stage. The severity of those stages were assessed by a psychiatric observation and the scores of Beck Self-Rating Depression Inventory.In the depressive stage, the egograms revealed the extremely low level at the "Free Child" ego state, and the highest level at the "Adapted Child". The "Free Child" showed statistically significant differences from the other four ego states.In the improved stage, the following significant changes became clear : the levels of the "Adult" and "Free Child" increased and the "Adapted Child" decreased, While the "Critical Parent" showed a tendency to increase. The total scores of all the ego states also increased in accordance with the improvement of depression.There are some reports of other scholars, in which the egogram patterns show strong similarity to that of the improved stage as reported in this study.The average scores of Beck Inventory were 24.97 (±10.28) at the depressive stage, and 10.26 (±9.71) at the improved stage.

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Changes in gonadotropin and high occurence of depression are observed during menopause. It is assumed that hormone, especially gonadotropin, is related to depression occuring during menopause.LH-RH test was conducted to the postmenopausal depressed women and the postmenopausal depressed women after hysterectomy who visited internalists for medical treatment. Studies were focused on the mode of gonadotropin secretion.In the postmenopausal depressed women, increases in the amount and precentage of LH showed low values compared to the control, thus demonstrating the fall in the reverse-capacity of LH secretion.The depression was classfied into two types : primary and secondary depressions. In primary depression, the resting levels for LH and FSH were lower compared to the control, while the net increase and percentage increaese of LH fell off and FSH showed no significant difference from the control.In secondary depression, the resting value for LH was higher compared to the control, while FSH showed no significant difference from the control, nor did the net increase and percentage increase of LH and FSH show any difference from the control.Postmenopausal depressed women after hysterectomy had important psychosocial factors, but had no influence on the endocrinological environment.The reaction pattern of LH and FSH in postmenopausal depressed women after hysterectomy showed a similar tendency to that observed in postmenopausal depressed women.In the majority of 5 cases in which follow-up observations were made on the therapeutic course, heir reaction to the LH-RH test remained almost unchanged even in the period of remission, during which symptoms were improved by psycho-pharmacotherapy. Furthermore, consecutive LH-RH test was performed but no significant changes in the reaction was observed.

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A study was made with regard to influences of psychological, autonomic nervous and character factors up on the results of a double-blind study of Y-12141,an anti-allergic drug. The subjects consisted of 239 patients (above age 13 years) with moderate or severe perennial allergic rhinitis and the method used was a questionnaire which was prepared by Dr. Okuda, one of the authors. The result, showed that the personality factors significantly affected the drop-outs and global assessment of efficacy, whereas the autonomic nervous factors were significantly correlated to the improvement in nasal discharge and to the combined use of other anti-allergic drugs. However, it seemed that these factors might not exert marked influences upon the rate of drug intake, effect of placebo, objective findings and improvement of subjective symptoms. Furthermore psychological factors were significantly correlated to the sex and type of disease, while the autonomic nervous factors to the sex, age onset, severity and types of disease.

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The present study is concerned with EMG-biofeedback in writer's cramp. Two patients of tremor type, three of stiff type and two of dystonia type were instructed to penmanship with the EMG-biofeedback procedure to decrease EMG-amplitudes at writing.In the tremor type and the stiff type writer's cramp, practice effects appeared, and the EMG-amplitude was decreased. No effect was seen, however, in the dystonia type. In the tremor type even though good practice effect was seen, surface EMG showed that tremor was continuing. Therefore, we conjectured that EMG-biofeedback therapy was effective in the stiff type.Regarding the results that each type of writer's cramp had its own pattern in response to EMG-biofeedback, we suspected that there were different psychophysiological or neurophysiological bases amongst various types of writer's cramp.

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A single woman, age 38,attended the clinic for the first time on July, 1979,complaining of uncontrollable jerking and turning her head upwards, blepharoptosis, tongue thrust and cramp of swallowing.The symptom began to develop gradually three years ago when she was working at a department store. It then became progressively worse.Neurophysiological examinations showed no abnormality. Pharmaceutical treatment was tried but gave her no relief.So we treated her with Gestalt Therapy. By using a chair-technique, the patient became aware of her aggression toward her supervisors and brother-in-law. The symptom disappeared in response to this approach.

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A psychosomatic approach to two patients with reactive hypoglycemia was presented. This approach enabled them to improve their symptoms and laboratory data. In general, reactive hypoglycemia is classified into seven types. In the course of treatment of one patient, however, we detected that an apparent transition occurred from one type to another, that is, alimentary reactive hypoglycemia to idiopathic reactive hypoglycemia.Case 1. The patient was a 30-year old man who was a mechanical engineer. He had complained of recurrent spells of palpitation, sweating, tremor for three months prior to the admission to our hospital. On the basis of a glucose tolerance test, the diagnosis of idiopathic reactive hypoglycemia was confirmed. Several psychological tests showed that he had a tendency to be aggressive but could not express his aggression. In the treatment, he learned to relax himself by Autogenic Training and discharge his aggression by participating in a group therapy of Transactional Analysis.Case 2. The patient was a 26-year old nurse. For two years prior to the admission, she had noted the onset of attacks of tachycardia accompanied by sweating, hunger, and anxiety which appeared about two or three hours after meals. After she was admitted to our hospital, the diagnosis of alimentary reactive hypoglycemia was confirmed by a glucose tolerance test. Her symptoms were relatively well controlled by Autogenic Training. After she had been discharged from our hospital and followed up as an outpatient, she had hypoglycemia attacks again. She was readmitted to our hospital with the diagnosis of idiopathic reactive hypoglycemia. She participated in a group therapy of Transactional Analysis, and by busing a chair technique she became able to control her irritability and aggression. She was discharged from our hospital with no symptom and the glucose tolerance test was found to be normal.

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