Neuropsychiatric Viewpoint of "Vegetative-Dystonia"(Pathophysiology and Treatment of Autonomic Nervous Dysfunction)

Abstract

From the viewpoint of clinical neuropsychiatry, so-called "vegetative-dystonia" is a ten-tative diagnosis, which bears some resemblance to "unidentified clinical syndrome (Abe)" in the field of internal medicine. This vegetative dystonia can be devided into the following five categories : l) Psychophysiologic vegetative-dystonia (psychophysiological autonomic and visceral disorders, psychological factors affecting physical condition) 2) Neurotic vegetative-dystonia (vegetative neuroses, generalized anxiety disorder, somatization disorder, etc.) 3) Depressive vegetative-dystonia (vegetative depression, mild depression, masked depression, etc.) 4) Essential vegetative-dystonia (orthostatic dysregulation, hyperhidrosis, climacteric disorder, premenstrual tension syndrome, etc.) 5) Others : a) Iocal vegetative-dystonia ex.) Barre-Lieou syndrome (posterior cervical sympathetic syndrome) "cervical sympathetic dysharmony" (imbalance between the right and left sides of cervical sympathetic functions) b) transitory vegetative-dystonia......initial symptoms of neoplasma, etc. c) symptomatic vegetative-dystonia The treatments of "vegetative-dystonia" depend largely upon the pathogenesis of the dystonic state of the autonomic nervous system and, therefore, the causes of the alterations in autonomic balance should be clarified.