the prevalence of mental health disorders continues to rise worldwide, such that it is estimated that 1in 4 individuals will be affected by a mental health disorder at some point in their lifetime. research has found that the most prevalent mental health disorders are depressive disorder. depression is a common condition, particularly within the aging population. the development of depression, ...

In the context of global change, the physiological and hormonal stress responses have received much attention because of their implications in terms of allostasis. However, most studies have focused on glucocorticoids only as the "common" response to stressors while neglecting other endocrine axes and hormones (e.g. prolactin, thyroid hormones) that play a crucial role in metabolic adjustments....

Long-term exposure to stress and its physiological mediators, in particular cortisol, may lead to impaired telomere maintenance. In this study, we examine if greater cortisol responses to an acute stressor and/or dysregulated patterns of daily cortisol secretion are associated with shorter telomere length. Twenty-three postmenopausal women comprising caregivers for dementia partners (n=14) and ...

The brain is the central organ of stress and adaptation to stress because it perceives and determines what is threatening, as well as the behavioral and physiological responses to the stressor, which promote adaptation ("allostasis") but also contribute to pathophysiology ("allostatic load/overload") when overused and dysregulated. The adult as well as developing brain possesses a remarkable ab...

Corticosterone has received considerable attention as the principal hormonal mediator of allostasis or physiological stress in wild animals. More recently, it has also been implicated in the regulation of parental care in breeding birds, particularly with respect to individual variation in foraging behavior and provisioning effort. There is also evidence that prolactin can work either inversely...

In this article, a concept of staging of unipolar affective illness (recurrent depression) is presented. In respective subchapters, three most important aspects of this issue have been discussed: 1) staging of unipolar affective illness; 2) staging of treatment-resistant depression; and 3) conversion of unipolar into bipolar affective illness. The evidence for so called neuroprogression of the ...

The brain controls both the physiologic and the behavioral coping responses to daily events as well as major stressors, and the nervous system is itself a target of the mediators of those responses through circulating hormones. The amygdala and hippocampus interpret what is stressful and regulate appropriate responses. The amygdala becomes hyperactive in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and...

The brain is the key organ of the response to stress because it determines what is threatening and, therefore, potentially stressful, as well as the physiological and behavioral responses which can be either adaptive or damaging. Stress involves two-way communication between the brain and the cardiovascular, immune, and other systems via neural and endocrine mechanisms. Beyond the "flight-or-fi...

This thesis proposed to apply the concepts of allostasis and self-regulation to redefining the difficulties encountered by children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in processing sensory stimulations. This thesis consisted of two phases of study. Phase 1 of the study validated the two major forms (Home and Main Classroom) of the Sensory Processing Measure–Hong Kong Chinese version (SPM– HKC...