Psychiatry and endocrinology: an expanding interface

There is growing documentation that a variety of hormones can both influence mood and behavior and be affected by them. Endocrine measures thus provide us with a readily accessible source of information about how the brain mediates between stimuli arising from the external social environment, intrapsychic phenomena, and the body's internal physiological needs. This paper will review recent psychoendocrine research which has in particular suggested several new concepts: (1) the brain itself might be viewed as a "target organ" for certain hormones; (2) specific hormonal correlates of certain clinical psychiatric syndromes, such as anorexia nervosa and depressive illness, might serve as biological markers which could help in the differential diagnosis of these conditions; and (3) peripheral hormonal determinations, by virtue of the role played by central nervous system (CNS) neurotransmitters in endocrine regulation, may provide important specific information about possible CNS biogenic amine abnormalities associated with the pathogenesis of certain psychiatric disorders.