The etiology of experimental gastric ulceration.

JT OR MANY YEARS it has been the opinion of many physicians, physiologists, and psychologists that nervous stimuli brought about by worrying, anxiety, fear, and conflict can lead to gastrointestinal changes which may result in the formation of gastric ulcers. However, no one has ever shown experimentally that such emotional factors actually lead to the formation of gastric ulcers. That it is not feasible to experiment with these factors in humans is evident, and to the present time, no one has been able to produce gastric ulcers in animals by placing them in anxiety-, fear-, or conflict-producing situations. However, there have been a few experimental investigations which have dealt with some aspects of gastric ulcer etiology. Shay and his coworkers have reported a simple method of creating gastric ulcers in rats by a surgical procedure. They ligated the small intestine of fasting animals at the pylorus and when autopsies were done on these animals from 8 to 16 hours later, extensive ulceration of the rumen of the stomach was observed. They concluded that ulcers occur when unbuffered gastric juice is present in the stomach in sufficient amounts and for a sufficient period of time. The ulcers occurred in those areas of the stomach which are least protected by mucosa.