[Stress of the perinatal period and anxiety. Biological aspects]

A study of current knowledge concerning the biological aspects of anxiety leads us to propose two hypotheses. These suggest that a state of anxiety could develop following certain disturbances which take place following the progressive interactions of the cholinergic and noradrenergic systems involved in behavioural adaptation during the perinatal period (in particular at the level of the hippocampus). These hypotheses could explain the fact (accepted by a large number of specialists) that situations of stress are capable of eliciting anxiety when they affect the child, at a time when its system of behavioural adaptation is still inadequate, to respond in a suitable fashion to such a challenge. They imply also that the glucocorticoids could participate in these disorders during repeated impregnations of certain nervous tissues in the process of cellular differentiation (following hormonal treatment, or situations of stress experienced by the mother during gestation or by the infant during the neonatal period). Finally, they do not exclude the incidence of genetic factors (proposed by a number of authors) in the development of anxiety. Consequently, we envisaged that, under the influence of the previously postulated disturbances, a "potential latent anxiety" could develop during this delicate perinatal period, on which the adult would later be dependent and for which the reappearance threshold would be proportionately lowered as the potential is higher.