Nosological status of endogenous anxiety: 'anxious thymopathy' revisited

In 1950 López Ibor described a nosological entity called anxious thymopathy ('timopatía ansiosa'). The origin of his description was the observation of recoveries of neurotic patients during psychotherapy which were not directly related to the psychodynamic process. Such a spontaneous fading of neurotic anxiety was suspected to be of an endogenous character. This led to the description of a vital anxiety, a mood disturbance similar to Schneider's [1950] vital sadness present in endogenous depressions. Normal and pathological (vital) anxiety were thought to be different, vital anxiety having a biological origin, so that biological treatment was applied to it. In the course of the years, López Ibor came to the conclusion that anxious thymopathy was not an independent nosological entity, rather that vital (also called endothymic) anxiety was an element present in all forms of neurotic disorders integrated with personality and biographical factors. This research led to the concept of neuroses as mood disorders [López Ibor, 1966].