Some psychosomatic considerations in Addison's disease; report of a case.

A,LDDISON'S DISEASE has been generally considered in the literature from the point of view of pathophysiology of the adrenal gland, and the various symptomatic manifestations of the disease have been interpreted usually as direct reflections of the adrenocortical defect. Nearly all clinical descriptions of the disease, however, mention the so-called "nervous and mental" concomitants, which represent total organismic functioning in its interrelatedness to its external environment and to an inner awareness of its state of wellbeing and bodily integrity. In fact, the outstanding presenting symptom has always been a profound neurasthenic picture often with irritability, restlessness and hypochondriacal preoccupation.' 21 Beyond the generally recognized picture of neurasthenia and hypochondriacal absorption, and the toxic delirious states of acute Addi-