The impact of social status on psychiatric disease susceptibility - an inflammatory model.

Chronic inflammation of the brain during the prenatal period, infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood has a significant impact on brain structures involved in cognition and mental health (Lupien 2009). Specific effects on the brain, behaviour and cognition are related to the timing and duration of exposure to inflammation, and in some instances, interactions between gene affects and past exposure to environmental adversity (Lupien 2009). There is a growing focus on neuroinflammation playing a significant role in psychiatry; schizophrenia (Shen et al. 2008), bipolar disorder (Hope et al. 2009), autism (Vargas et al. 2005) and psychosis (Masopust et al. 2011). Here we highlight the effects of social status which is described here as a pathogenic factor, on susceptibility to inflammatory disease and discuss how this relationship holds potential implications for the field of psychiatry.