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Psychosomatic Medicine 36:69-81 (1974)
© 1974 American Psychosomatic Society

The Lactate Theory of Anxiety: A Review and Reevaluation

SIGURD H. ACKERMAN MD1 and EDWARD J. SACHAR MD1

1 Departments of Psychiatry, Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York

Pitts and McClure proposed the hypothesis that alterations in serum lactate play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of anxiety, both in its psychic and somatic aspects. The authors critically reevaluate this hypothesis in the light of conceptual and methodological issues pertinent to psychobiological studies of emotion. Data are summarized that indicate significant defects in the theory from biochemical, physiological, and psychological points of view. The authors conclude that, while lactate infusions do precipitate anxiety attacks in patients with a certain type of anxiety neurosis, the mechanism cannot be that proposed by Pitts and McClure. An alternate hypothesis, which may better fit the data, involves a conditioned phobic response by some anxiety neurotics to certain of their somatic symptoms of anxiety.

Submitted on September 21, 1972
Revised on April 2, 1973




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