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Sex Hormones and Pain Control
Published in Sahar Swidan, Matthew Bennett, Advanced Therapeutics in Pain Medicine, 2020
In fact, chronic cortisol abnormalities, when levels are elevated or depressed, are the major hormonal problem in chronic pain patients, although the prevalence of cortisol abnormalities in chronic pain patients is unknown.125,127 The stress response results in cortisol levels that are initially elevated, and then if the pain is chronic, cortisol levels over time become depressed. Cortisol is a potent anti-inflammatory hormone, and its dysfunction is prone to result in extensive inflammation due to the activation of a proinflammatory stress response that is acute. Likewise with chronic stress, cortisol dysfunction results in unregulated inflammation following reactivation of the stress response, which may contribute to a cycle of pain, inflammation, and depression. Furthermore, pain itself is a stressor that may reactivate a proinflammatory stress response which is now changed due to abnormal cortisol levels.128 In addition, studies have shown associations among inflammatory cytokines, stress-related chronic pain, and low salivary cortisol levels.129,130 Furthermore, dwindling cortisol levels have been observed in patients with different stress-related disorders such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Data suggest that these disorders are characterized by a symptom triad of enhanced stress sensitivity, pain, and fatigue.131
Chronic Pain and Stress
Published in Michael S. Margoles, Richard Weiner, Chronic PAIN, 2019
Most physicians recognize that there is a mind-body interaction by an individual and his or her environment, even though the exact process is little understood. Stress disorders develop over time and occur only after repeated exposures to stressful situations. Each stressful situation adds to the last in a cumulative fashion. Other environmental and metabolic factors may play a role in stress-related disorders. For example, a migraine headache may be initiated by a dietary imbalance, psychological stress, various other factors, or an interaction among all of them. Which of the related factors came first becomes an academic argument since the interaction among all the related factors takes a mild headache and escalates it up to the severity of a “migraine.”
Hormonal measurement in psychobiological research
Published in Philip N. Murphy, The Routledge International Handbook of Psychobiology, 2018
Angela Clow, Frank Hucklebridge, Nina Smyth
The HPA axis response to an acute stress challenge has been associated with a range of stress-related disorders. For example, in children and adolescents increased cortisol reactivity has been shown to be associated with behaviours and emotional problems associated with depression (Dockray, Susman, & Dorn, 2009). In contrast, older patients with depression (mean age: 62 years) have been reported to have an attenuated cortisol stress response (Taylor et al., 2006). It has been proposed that chronic stress, with associated changes in HPA axis reactivity, is associated with changes in the structure and function of the hippocampus (via changes in neurogenesis) and that this in turn leads to reduced negative feedback on the HPA axis, generating a vicious circle of psychopathology influential in the genesis of clinical depression (and a range of physical health conditions such as CV disease) (Mahar, Bambico, Mechawar, & Nobrega, 2014). Such theories makes it valuable to investigate individual differences in sensitivity of the HPA axis to stress-stimulation, as a marker of vulnerability to stress-related disorder.
Sex-specific correlates of metabolic syndrome risk in college-aged young adults
Published in Journal of American College Health, 2022
Simon Higgins, Alexandra N. Smith, Ewan R. Williams, Bhibha M. Das, Michael V. Fedewa, Ellen M. Evans
While several studies have documented the prevalence of MetS on college campuses, to our knowledge, this is the first study to identify sex-specific MetS correlates as a function of MetS risk, using a comprehensive battery of physiological, psychosocial, and behavioral assessments. Consistent with previous studies,40 we found that percent body fat was associated with greater MetS risk in both males and females, accounting for 18.2–23.0% of the total variance. This finding is not surprising as higher percent body fat, especially central adiposity, is often predictive of insulin resistance and dyslipidemia.41 Similarly, perceived stress in females and chronic systemic inflammation in males were both positively associated with MetS risk. Potential inflammation-mediated pathways between stress and metabolic health have been suggested,42 and higher rates of stress are commonly reported in college students, with over 50% of one sample testing positive for major stress-related disorders.43 While there is little research examining the relationship between stress, chronic systemic inflammation, and MetS risk in a college population, associations have been reported among older populations.44,45 Such data, in combination with the associations reported herein, suggest that the MetS risk factors exhibited in this population may in part be explained by one or both of these pathways, which is important as it provides a potential target for sex-specific assessment and intervention that could influence multiple physiological systems.
Immediate stress alters social and object interaction and recognition memory in nearly isogenic rat strains with differing stress reactivity
Published in Stress, 2021
Alice K. Schaack, Madaline Mocchi, Katherine J. Przybyl, Eva E. Redei
To investigate the effects of stress and genetic stress-reactivity on memory, the inbred Wistar-Kyoto More Immobile (WMI), and its nearly isogenic control the Wistar-Kyoto Less Immobile (WLI) rat strains were used. These strains were generated through bidirectional selection from the Wistar-Kyoto parental strain using immobility behavior in the forced swim test (FST; Andrus et al., 2012; Will et al., 2003). The WLI and WMI strains are fully inbred, have been tested in many behavioral and drug use paradigms, and their genome has been sequenced (de Jong et al., 2021). The strains also differ in behavioral and hormonal responsiveness to acute and chronic stress (Lim et al., 2018; Mehta-Raghavan et al., 2016). Moreover, the stress-reactive WMI males have shown increased fear memory compared to the less stress-reactive WLI males in the stress-enhanced fear learning model of post-traumatic stress disorder (Lim et al., 2018). Thus, many WMI phenotypes show parallels with human stress-related disorders suggesting that this strain is indeed a model of increased stress-reactivity.
Emerging cycloid psychosis episodes during COVID-19 pandemic: a case series
Published in Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 2021
Eloi Giné Servén, Maria Martinez Ramirez, Ester Boix Quintana, Araitz Petrizan Aleman, Francisco-Javier Barón Fernández, Paloma Fernández Corcuera, Maria Serra Buil, Josep Cañete Crespillo
COVID-19 pandemic is generating an augmentation of stress levels that could heavily impact mental health. We should pay special attention to stress-related disorders that could debut or relapse. A recent study [21] showed an increase of reactive psychoses in the context of the current pandemic. During the first stage of this COVID-19 pandemic, we have observed an important increase in our admissions in the Psychiatry ward of patients diagnosed as cycloid psychosis, the episode being an onset or a relapse. In two months (from mid-March to mid-May 2020) we have admitted 8 patients with this diagnosis, under normal circumstance we admit around 6 patients every year. For the same two-month period (mid-March to mid-May) in the years 2015–2019, one or two cases of cycloid psychosis were admitted in our hospital. In spite of that, in this same two-month period, we did not find an increase in the number of hospital admissions for other psychiatric disorders. This suggests that cycloid psychosis is specially related to stress and has usually been linked to precipitating factors, which is why in literature it is considered to be closely connected to reactive psychosis [22]. It needs to be pointed out that all our patients showed maladaptive personality traits that could difficult stress management and facilitate the appearance of this clinical condition.