Mechanisms of physical and emotional stress

Abstract

Several new concepts of stress have developed as a result of advances in bench research. These include the concept of an integrated "stress system," the realization that there are bi-directional effects between stress and the immune system, the suggestion that a number of common psychiatric disorders represent dysregulation of systems responding to stress, and the epidemiologic association of stress with the major scourges of humanity. The idea that there is an integrated set of anatomical structures that function to produce the behavioral, physiological and biochemical changes directed toward maintaining homeostasis is supported by new findings in neurobiology demonstrating anatomical and functional connections between the hypothalamus, the arousal center in the pons, and several sympathetic nuclei in the hindbrain. Additional integrative interactions between the adrenal and sympathetic divisions of the stress system are present in the periphery, as glucocorticoids and catecholamines are complementary and permissive to each other's action in regulating and maintaining metabolic and cardiovascular homeostasis. A number of new and interesting associations between the "stress system" and the immune system have been revealed over the years supporting the long suspected link between endocrinology and immunology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: preface)