[Psycho-endocrinology in affective disorders (author's transl)]

The possible actions of hormones on the central nervous system are yet poorly known. The relationships between hormonal disturbances and affective disorders are very difficult to interpret. Now, the more usual hypothesis on the pathogeny of these affective disorders is a dysfunction of catecholaminergic neuromediation. In this view, different hormonal anomalies can be involved: participation of hypothalamo-pituitary-adreno-cortical axis, hypothalamo-pituitary-thyroid axis, hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadic axis and intervention of growth-hormone axis. These different explanations are supported by some experimental and clinical data but none is really predominant. In this paper, the modifications of growth-hormone responses in some affective disorders are shown as very interesting and permitting some precisions in etiologic diagnosis of some affective disorders.