Attacks of anxiety, panic and frenzy, and their related depression: a hypothesis.

The hypothesis is that the pathogenesis of attacks of anxiety, panic or frenzy (hyperactive disorders) rests on the abnormal activation of the same brain-controlled survival mechanism, and that the subsequent depression is part of this nosological continuum. The acute activation phase would be the counterpart of two principal types of reaction to threat and imminent attack: run-for-life or fight-for-life, sub-served by brain-controlled metabolic activation to make energy available for either. The phase of depression that follows would represent the recovery phase during which homeostatic controls and metabolism, distorted during the acute attacks, are restored to normal.