The importance of dietary control in metabolic studies of manic-depressive patients.

Diet control of electrolyte intake appears to diminish day to day variation of urinary electrolyte output. Urine sodium concentration is more affected by diet control than potassium, possibly due to the greater variation in sodium ingestion on uncontrolled diets. The coefficient of variation of urinary sodium excretion on the controlled diet was not significantly greater than the variation in sodium ingestion. These experimental results suggest that controlled diets reduce random variation in sodium and potassium excretion and therefore enhance the possibility of observing illness-related biological changes.