Following exposure to a major traumatic event like the August seventh 1998 Nairobi bomb blast various reactions occur, some of which result in stress-related psychiatric disorders. We have described one such case, and used it to illustrate the salient features of post-traumatic stress disorder. We have outlined the diagnostic categories of the post-traumatic disorders and discussed the differen...

“Anxiety disorders” is a blanket term covering several different forms of abnormal and pathological fear and anxiety, and is often comorbid with other mental disorders, particularly clinical depression. These conditions are often related to stressful life experiences, especially when chronic and traumatic. Stress appears to act as a predisposing and precipitating factor in these psychiatric con...

Chronic mild stress leads to depression in many cases and is linked to several debilitating diseases including mental disorders. Recently, neuronal tracing techniques, stereology, and immunohistochemistry have revealed persistent and significant microstructural alterations in the hippocampus, hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala, which form an interconnected system known as the stress ...

Psychological stress contributes to the onset and exacerbation of nearly all neuropsychiatric disorders. Individual differences in stress-regulatory circuits can therefore dramatically affect vulnerability to these illnesses. Here we identify neural circuit mechanisms underlying individual differences in vulnerability to stress using a murine model of chronic social defeat stress. In chronicall...

OBJECTIVE To compare two levels of stress (solitary confinement (SC) and non-SC) among remand prisoners as to incidence of psychiatric disorders in relation to prevalent disorders. METHOD Longitudinal repeated assessments were carried out from the start and during the remand phase of imprisonment. Both interview-based and self-reported measures were applied to 133 remand prisoners in SC and 9...

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the organelle where secretory and membrane proteins are synthesized and folded. Unfolded proteins that are retained within the ER can cause ER stress. Eukaryotic cells have a defense system called the "unfolded protein response" (UPR), which protects cells from ER stress. Cells undergo apoptosis when ER stress exceeds the capacity of the UPR, which has been rev...

Oxidative stress is one of the predisposing factors in adult neurological disorders. We have examined the involvement of oxidative stress in child-onset neurodegenerative disorders, and here we review the findings from our analysis. In cases of Cockayne syndrome, the oxidative products of lipids and proteins were increased in the globus pallidus; however, oxidative nucleotide damage that coinci...

Early life stress has been shown to exert profound short- and long-term effects on human physiology both in the central nervous system and peripherally. Early life stress has demonstrated clear association with many psychiatric disorders including major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistics Manuel of Mental Disorders (DSM) diagnostic cate...

Affective disorders are a medical condition with a complex biological pattern of etiology, involving genetic and epigenetic factors, along with different environmental stressors. Increasing numbers of studies indicate that induction of oxidative and nitrosative stress (O&NS) pathways, which is accompanied by immune-inflammatory response, might play an important role in the pathogenic mechanisms...

Nearly 13 years have passed since Alcohol Research and Health (now titled Alcohol Research: Current Reviews) first visited the topic of "Alcohol and Stress." Since that time, the field has advanced considerably. New terms have been developed to describe the complex physiological interactions that occur when an individual is faced with stressful events and more is known about how the brain and b...