[Cardial achalasia and emotional stress. Considerations on 47 clinical cases]

Reference is made to personal experience of psycholability is most patients with cardiac achalasia in presenting the results of a preliminary study of the relation between psychic trauma and the onset of this affection, in which a retrospective investigation was made of 47 clinical records prepared for surgical purposes, and hence poorly oriented. It was found that 16 patients (34%) spontaneously reported that dysphagia was closely related to a psychic trauma in terms of time. While no aetiopathogenetic theories can be founded on this observation, it suggests that the question can be usefully examined further by means of more specific psychological investigations that are more appropriate for employment in subsequent cases, the aim being to determine whether the trauma in question triggers the disease, or is simply a sign revealing the presence of an already existing condition.