Stress Flashcards
Somatic (physical) stress
Physical, emotional and subjective experiences associated with damage of body tissue and bodily threat (eg. pain and inflammation)
Psychological stress
Emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances, often involving anticipation.
Eustress (good stress)
Positive stress which is beneficial and motivating; typically, the experience of striving for a goal which is within reach. Eustress is motivating.
Distress (bad stress)
Negative stress which is damaging and harmful. Typically occurs when a challenge (threat) is not resolved by coping or adaptation.
The 3 phases in Selye’s syndrome / General Adaption Syndrome
Alarm
Adaption (resistance)
Exhaustion
Homeostasis
Maintaining internal environment necessary for cell functioning
Allostasis
How complex systems adapt (eg via SAM / Sympathetic-Adrenal-Medullary and HPA / hypothalamo-pituitary axis) in changing environments, by changing set-points (“adaption through change”)
Allostatic load
Cumulative exposure to stressors (and cost to the body of allostasis) which if unrelieved leads to systems “wearing out”.
Acute stress
Short-lived response to a novel situation experienced by the body as a danger
It is healthy and adaptive and necessary for survival.
Chronic stress
Repeated or continued exposure to threatening or dangers situations, especially those that cannot be controlled. Some involve appraisal and conscious perception.
The 5 elements of the human stress response
Biochemical
Physiological
Behavioural
Cognitive
Emotional
What mediates stress responses
Sympathetic - Adrenal-Medullary (SAM)
Hypothalamo-pituitary axis (HPA).
Responses lead to changes that influence future responses to stress, also reflecting brain plasticity.
Sympothomedullary pathway
Hypothalamus activates adrenal medulla
Adrenal medulla (controlled by ANS) releases adrenaline and noradrenaline into bloodstream.
Body prepares for “fight-of-flight”. Adrenaline and noradrenaline reinforce pattern of of sympathetic activation.
Pituitary-adrenal system
Higher brain centres activate hypothalamus
Hypothalamus releases corticotrophin (ACTH_
Adrenal cortex releases corticosteroids
Corticosteroids causes changes - liver releases energy and immune system suppressed.
Biochemical and molecular stress responses
Glucocorticoids (cortisol)
Catecholamines (adrenaline & noradrenaline)
Inflammation and immune response.
(acute stress –> immune suppression
chronic stress –> partial immune response + low-grade chronic inflammatory response, maybe effects on gene expression)
