Neuroendocrine basis of human disease.

This paper is a short review of the traditionally obvious diseases of neuroendocrine origin (diabetes insipidus, Kallman syndrome, etc.), but also of the newly recognized participation of several peptides originally characterized in the hypothalamus and of their receptors, in a series of diseases, both in internal medicine and in psychiatry (rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation, carcinoids, anxiety, depression, etc.). The concept of neuropeptides is now vastly expanded, as these molecules and their several receptors are now known to be widely distributed throughout the brain and the periphery with increasing evidence of paracrine and autocrine modes of action.