The present review attempts to reconcile the dichotomy that exists in the literature in relation to fibromyalgia, in that it is considered either a somatic response to psychological stress or a distinct organically based syndrome. Specifically, the hypothesis explored is that the link between chronic stress and the subsequent development of fibromyalgia can be explained by one or more abnormali...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by complex symptoms and medication-induced motor complications that fluctuate in onset, severity, responsiveness to treatment, and disability. The unpredictable and debilitating nature of PD and the inability to halt or slow disease progression may result in psychological stress. Psychological stress may exacerbate biological mechanisms believed to cont...

Unrelieved physical or mental stress and repeated episodic stress are ultimately harmful to the cardiovascular system and thus can be life-threatening. In this article, Dr Eliot describes efforts to quantify the psychophysiologic responses to stress and to identify the components of stress and its clinical consequences. He also explains the importance of controlling the real-life episodic fluct...

BACKGROUND It is unclear whether psychological stress contributes to the inflammatory process in the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). This review assesses the epidemiological evidence regarding a causal link between stress and gut inflammation in IBD. METHODS A Medline search identified prospective studies of the effects of stress on subsequ...

A previous study of Hurricane Katrina survivors found that higher levels of predisaster social support were associated with lower psychological distress one year after the storm, and that this pathway was mediated by lower exposure to hurricane-related stressors. As a follow-up, we examined the impact of pre- and postdisaster social support on longer-term of mental health-both psychological dis...

The present study aimed to investigate the reciprocal relations between experiential avoidance, stressor, and psychological stress response (which consist of anger, depression, anxiety, helplessness, and physical complaints). In this study, 688 Japanese junior high school students (353 boys, 334 girls, 1 unidentified; mean age 13.28 years) completed three waves of questionnaires on experiential...