[Depressive symptomatology and type of treatment (author's transl)]

Details of treatment remain imprecise in depression, as the trials of antidepressants have been more concerned with overall effectiveness than with specificity. The aetiology in depression does not provide sufficient guidance for treatment, even though drugs are preferred for endogenous depression and psychotherapy for neurotic depression. An unitary formulation of depression can be postulated on the basis of the concept of regression; endogenous and reactive depression would then stem from the nature of the depressed subject's personality. Such an approach can encompass the various possible aetiologies in depression: biochemical, psychological and social, without necessarily contrasting them. In this connection, depression is a psychobiological syndrome within which there may be different symptomatic pictures, depending notably upon the various monoamine hypotheses raised in numerous studies. In that event, possible correlations between biochemical abnormalities and certain clinical manifestations may better guide the selection of drugs.