[The autonomic nervous system and its role in pathology]

The autonomic nervous system under conditions of the dominant effect of the cerebral cortex is the main regulator of all physiological processes in the body. Anatomically and physiologically it is connected with the limbico-reticular complex receiving from it stimulating and correcting effects under normal conditions and variable adverse effects under pathological conditions. There are great discrepancies in physicians' opinions concerning many types of disorders of vegetative innervation which leads to the prescription of different methods of treatment poorly effective or totally unjustified. Administration of drugs to patients with vegetative disorders should be based on their effect on definite impairments of adren- and cholinergic structures with attendant dismetabolic processes and other dysfunctions.