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Psychoneuroendocrinology

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Contemporary Psychiatry

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Abstract

References to biological disturbances as the basis of specific psychiatric disorders can be found in works from as early as the Corpus Hippocratum dating back to the fifth century B.C. Within this context and in keeping with humoral theory, psychological disorders were also ascribed to an imbalance (dyscrasia) of black and yellow bile, mucus and blood, with melancholy being attributed to a predominance of black bile, pointing, once again, to a humoral interpretation of psychiatric abnormalities. In contrast to this scholastic approach to medicine, Paracelsus (1491–1541), who also laid the foundations for the development of iatrochemistry (which gained particular importance during the seventeenth century), saw the human body as a chemical system whose ailments could therefore also be cured using chemical compounds. His findings concerning the relationship between struma and cretinism first pointed to endocrinological changes in association with psychiatric disorders.

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Authors
  1. I. Heuser
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit, P.O. Box 12 21 20, 68072, Mannheim, Germany

    Fritz Henn

  2. Belle-Idée, Bâtiment Salève, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, 2, chemin du Petit-Bel-Air, 1225, Chêne-Bourg/Genève, Switzerland

    Norman Sartorius

  3. Psychiatrische Klinik, Freie Universität Berlin, Eschenallee 3, 14050, Berlin, Germany

    Hanfried Helmchen

  4. Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, Ismaninger Straße 22, 81675, München, Germany

    Hans Lauter

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Heuser, I. (2001). Psychoneuroendocrinology. In: Henn, F., Sartorius, N., Helmchen, H., Lauter, H. (eds) Contemporary Psychiatry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59519-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59519-6_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64007-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-59519-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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