Stress-related preeclampsia: an evolutionary maladaptation in exaggerated stress during pregnancy?

Abstract

The authors hypothesize that preeclampsia is a stress-related disease and an evolutionary maladaptation of exaggerated stress during human pregnancy. Epidemiologic studies show that relative risk for preeclampsia is increased in many stressful situations. Many risk factors for preeclampsia are stress-related. Low-stress situations, on the contrary, are protective. Stress in pregnancy corroborates all physiopathologic theories for preeclampsia; it does not contradict them. Animals exposed to intense stress show many characteristics of preeclampsia, and some animal models for human preeclampsia have been proposed. The stress–alarm reaction is protective for survival in animals. But the evolutionary maladaptation of this intense stress could lead to preeclampsia in humans.