Five-hour oral glucose tolerance tests (GTTs) differentiated 30
volunteer patients who considered themselves hypoglycemic into three major
groups: those who had reactive hypoglycemia, those who were normal, and
those who had diabetes. Clinical psychiatric evaluation and Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory testing revealed that half of the 30
patients were experiencing a current psychiatric disorder, usually
depression. Hysterical personality traits were also noted in many of the
patients. The idea that reactive hypoglycemic patients have specific
personality characteristics was not substantiated by the authors' data.
They hypothesize that some patients with psychiatric illness may have their
symptoms erroneously attributed to incidental GTT findings.
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