Studies in Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Patients received the usual physical examinations and laboratory and X-ray procedures. Life histories were obtained in personal interviews in which attention was directed to sequence of ideas, figures of speech, characterizations, slips of the tongue, etc., as well as to overt content. In some cases, dream material was produced and associations made. Psychometric tests were administered when they seemed needed. In the present communication 3 cases with the labile "juvenile" form of the disorder are considered in detail. In each patient the symptoms of diabetes first occurred in life-settings in which there was a significant amt. of stress. Acutely stressful life situations were often associated with ketosis and coma. Reduction in symptoms and in insulin requirements regularly occurred under conditions of relative security in a hospital environment. When tested under laboratory conditions, the patients responded to stressful and conflict situations with increased ketonemia, urine output, glucose output, and chloride loss; with the removal of the stress, the effects subsided.