Annual Review of Psychology· 2020Q1· Review
Stress and Health: A Review of Psychobiological Processes
- 931citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2020year
Short summary
This review synthesizes the extensive science linking stress to negative health outcomes, highlighting direct psychobiological pathways and indirect behavioral influences.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Stress impacts health directly through autonomic and neuroendocrine responses.
- Stress also indirectly affects health by changing health behaviors.
- Key biological mechanisms involve the HPA axis, cortisol, autonomic nervous system, and gene expression.
- Stress is clinically relevant, increasing risk for infectious diseases.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
The cumulative science linking stress to negative health outcomes is vast. Stress can affect health directly, through autonomic and neuroendocrine responses, but also indirectly, through changes in health behaviors. In this review, we present a brief overview of ( a) why we should be interested in stress in the context of health; ( b) the stress response and allostatic load; ( c) some of the key biological mechanisms through which stress impacts health, such as by influencing hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis regulation and cortisol dynamics, the autonomic nervous system, and gene expression; and ( d) evidence of the clinical relevance of stress, exemplified through the risk of infectious diseases. The studies reviewed in this article confirm that stress has an impact on multiple biological systems. Future work ought to consider further the importance of early-life adversity and continue to explore how different biological systems interact in the context of stress and health processes.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Annual Review of Psychology, 2020 · DOI ↗
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Field: Behavioral Neuroscience
Behavioral NeuroscienceNeuroscience