Orienting-reflex behavior and clinical psychopathology

The effects of diagnosis, sex, age and medication on the orienting-reflex behavior of 263 psychiatric patients and 58 normal subjects were studied. Significant differences between the normal and patient groups and within the patient groups in different diagnostic categories were found. In the patient populations, further variations by types of medication received were found, whereas sex and age did not affect the orienting reflex. On the basis of frequency of response only normal subjects and patients could be distinguished, whereas amplitude analysis revealed a continuum in which the highest responses were given by normal subjects and the lowest by patients with chronic organic brain damage. In all subgroups the amplitudes of the responses of patients receiving antidepressant medication were higher than those of patients receiving antipsychotic medication.