Biogenic amine hypotheses of affective disorders.

Many lines of evidence suggest that effective disease is a heterogenous group of disorders. Pharmacologic, amine metabolite and neuroendocrine studies have aided in the tentative identification of two subtypes of depressive illness. One subtype may show an abnormality of central NE systems; the other, an abnormality of central 5-HT systems. Manic patients appear to manifest abnormalities of multiple systems biologically which may be related to a disturbance of ion exchange in a variety of cells both within and outside of the CNS. The understanding of these processes is far from complete and are the subject of continued scrutiny.