560 ABSl~ACXS

"~Gronment and being maflltained by such consequences, rather t han being acted upon by conditioned emotions. The behaviors may be said to be dis- turbing rather than being disturbed bcqaaviors, or related to operant rather than respondent controls.

X,Vithin this framework, d i s t u rb ing behavior might be considered as a learned pattern which has been estab- lished and ma in ta ined by its effects on the en,~dronrnent. It m a y have a v a r i e t y of. origins, but is thereafter shaped and maintained. Such patterns are often so effective that they pre- c lude further learning a n d result in deficit repertoires.

Intervention h e r e would involve

t h e development of a program to establish and maintain the desired repertoires, through dmnging the contingencies for reinforcement. Pro- grams developed in areas such as autism, schJzopln'enia, mental retarda- tion, and brain damage have rele- v a n c e for formulations implicating neurolo~cal and endocrine variables, and for psyehopharmaeologT.

The relations between these two conditioning approaches to bellavioraI problems will be considered, as well as the i r contact with the more tradi- tional therapies, hnplications for re- search in psychopharmacotogy and physiological variables will be con- sider ed.

SATURDAY MORNING, 9:00 a.m., FEBRUAttY 17, 1968

Session III. Neurochemieal and Psychopharmacological Aspects of Psychopathology

Chairman: JoEL ELK.~, M.D.

S ~ h i z o p h r e n i a : E v i d e n c e o f a P a t h o l o g i c I m m u n e M e c h a n i s m

ROBERT G. HEATH, M.D., D.M.Sc., Tulane University School of Medi- cine

Observations during almost t~vo de- cades of multidisciplinary" rese-arch at Tulane suggest that schizophrenia is a_n immunologic disorder in which f o ~ l abnormalities of the brain pro- duce clinical manifestations. Our at- tempts to correlate clinical manifesta- tions with physiologic activity of the

implicated in expressions of emotion, payticular],y pleasure, but also control awareness.- Therapeutic procedures suggested by animal experiments to correlate beha,¢ioral changes with brain ftmetion and applied to patients since 1950 have yielded considerable comparative data.

E l'eetT o~n cephalograms ( EEGs ) from the septal region during psy- chotic episodes consistently showed abnormal spiking and slow-wave ac- tivity. /rrvestigations into the cause led to isolation of a globulin frae-

brain arose from certain observations tion (taraxein) "fi'om schizophrenic in man and animals: (1) that schizo- se rum. Its intravenous injection into phrenic patients have imp;fircxt feel- rhesus h'~onkeys induced abnormal ings, espesvi,-dly pleasure, and ( 2 ) t h a t EEGs similar to those of psychotic ~q~ecifie animal brain sites not only are patients, as well as catatonia and be-

a~s-rrtac-rs 561

lmvior characteristic of psyc]mtic schizophrenia. Intravenous injections of taraxein into volunteers produced similar transient psychotic manifesta, tions. These experiments suggested a possible relation of taraxein to clinical manifestations of sclfizophre- nil .

Early inconsistent demonstration of taraxein activity led to refined tech- nics of obtaining a specific active gamma G immunoglobulin ( IgG) with psychosis-inducing properties. Fluorescent ant ibody tedmics showed globulin attaohed to nem-al cell nuclei of the septal region of brains obtained within eight hours after death of psy- chotic schizophrenic patients, but not nonschizophrenie control subjects.

In monkeys with chronically im- planted elect_l'odes, injection of a spe- title antibody, IgG, produced in sheep to septal tissues of m o n k e y and man, caused similar behavioral and E E G abnormalities as taraxein. Sheep IgG to other pa~cs of rn'onkey and human brains caused no such discenaible changes.

Fluoreseenf ant ibody technics showed similar globulin attachmeaat in brains of monkeys rapidly exsma- guinated during maximal abnormal tgEG and behavioral r~sponses to sheep antiseptal antibody,, as weI1 as to taraxein, but no such at tachment at other brain sites ~ffter administra- tion of shee~ antiSseptai ant ibody or taraxein. Standard immunoelec~tro - phoretic protein patterns of seral frac- tions of schizophrenic patients and control subjects did not dither, nor did sheep IgG containing antibody to the septal region or other brain tissues. Similar analysis of taraxein and of DEAE-Sephadex A-50 column frac-

tions of psychoactive sheep sera con- taining antibody to monkey or human septal tissues showed IgG alone.

Current data suggest tlmt schizo- phrenic patients may ]lave liniquO clones of ant ibody cells that produce a specific immunoglobulin, attach- ment of which to neural cell nuclei at antigenic septal sites may impair neurohumoral conduction and cause focal patlq..ophysiologic changes which, in turn, reduce awareness and muse psychotic symptoms. Our tqndings, if substantiated by others, reinforce our hypothesis that sehizophrcnfia is characterized by" somatic changes, probably with predetermined genetic factors.

Psychopharnlacology and "Personality

JONATHAN O. COLE, M.D., Psycho- pharmacotogy Serv&:e Center, NIMtl

A general consideration of the ef- fects of drugs and placebo on changes in psychopathology in schizophrenia, depression, and neurosis will be pre- sented, with data from several Na- tional Institute of Ment,'d Health c-ol- laborative studies being drawn upon,

In general, the effects appem- cl¢~ar- er and more easily iuterpretable in schizophrenia. Problems in detcmting similar effects in depression and neu- rosis will be discussed.

Cy!ogenetie Aspects of Psychopathology

LIss'¢ F. JARVlrZ, Ph.D., M.D., New YorA" State I~)'chiatric Institute

Since tile discovery, less than a decade ago, that gross ehromosomal abnormalities are compatible with human ~dability, numerous examples