불안과 불안장애의 신경생물학

The Neurobiology of Anxiety and Anxiety Disorder

The goal of this paper is to examine the neurobiological hypotheses of anxiety and anxiety disorders that are currently under investigation. The hypotheses are the involvement of adrenergic system and the role of locus coeruleus in animal behavior and human anxiety, the significance of lactate infusion in inducing panic attack, the association between mitral valve prolapse and panic，anxiety and the benzodiazepine/GABA receptor complex and other theories. Although the present knowledge is scant and controversial, the material reviewed in this paper strongly supports the biochemical and physiological basis of anxiety and anxiety disorders. Howerver， much more work is required to provide a reliable and reproducible neurobiological model of anxiety and anxiety disorders, for example, the detailed mechanism of lactate infusion in inducing panic attack, indentification of an endogenous ligand that interact with endogenous ligand of benzodiazepine receptor, the development of more sophisticated tools, etc.