MOTILITY OF THE SMALL INTESTINE DURING EMOTIONAL REACTIONS

Abstract
The motility of the small intestine was recorded by a balloon-tambour method in 20 patients during psychiatric interviews. Significant emotional reactions were observed during these interviews on 34 occasions, during 7 of which there was a definite simultaneous change in intestinal motility. A characteristic pattern of intestinal motility was not consistently associated with any specific emotion, although anger tended to be associated with increased tone. Symptoms appeared during interviews but there were no correlated changes in intestinal motility. Inadequacies of present technics for this type of study were apparent, particularly the lack of exact objective methods for measuring emotional reactions.