PATELLAR TENDON REFLEX TIME IN PSYCHIATRIC AND IN NEUROLOGIC CASES

Abstract

Snyder¹ and Hoffmann,² each working with two normal subjects, found that the electromyographically determined patellar tendon reflex time ranged from 0.0080 to 0.0240 seconds. Travis and Hunter³ studied this reflex time in eighty-seven normal adult subjects and found it to range from 0.0114 to 0.0268 second and to give a group average of 0.0197 second. Under normal conditions, they found reflex time relatively constant for the same person.⁴ In another study of normal subjects we⁵ found that alcohol markedly reduces patellar tendon reflex time. This last study offered further evidence toward the proposition that the greater and lesser irradiation of the higher centers of the central nervous system retards and facilitates, respectively, the activity of their subjacent levels. In a further attempt to strengthen or weaken the validity of this proposition, we undertook the present study of patellar tendon reflex time in psychiatric and neurologic