[Anxiety, aggression, agitation and depression: psychopathologic aspects]

While clinical experience has long since shown that there are different types of depression, in particular anxious and hostile depressions, the psychopathological analysis of the various forms remains of current interest. At least four psychopathological models are currently available. The first raises the question of the continuity between reactions to separation, particularly studied in children, and the clinical expression of certain forms of depression in adults. In many aspects, the latter suggest the sequence: protest-despair-detachment. The second model raises the question of the relationship between the depressive disorder and the organization of certain personalities. The considerable comorbidity between the borderline personality and affective disorders suggest that these two different disorders share a common dimension. The third-cultural-model hypothesizes a relationship between the sociocultural prohibition of aggressive responses and the incidence of depression. The fourth model is based on the existence of a specific biological constraint related to abnormalities of serotonin metabolism, to which dysregulation of anxious and aggressive-impulsive behavior patterns during depression are considered related. In conclusion, it may be considered that several models, in particular that of reaction to separation, may, at least in part, account for "positive-expression" depression, but that at least two questions have still to be answered: that regarding the relationships between depression and personality, and that concerning the relationships between the psychopathological constraints related to serotonin metabolism dysfunction and the "positive" expressions.