The Impact of Stressors on Health Status and Hypothalamic‐Pituitary‐Adrenal Axis and Autonomic Nervous System Responsiveness in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the autonomic nervous system (ANS) are critically involved in inflammation and are activated by stress. This suggests that stressful circumstances may affect the chronic inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Fifty-six scientific publications of the past 15 years were reviewed to get insight into the possible impact of stressors (grouped in five categories) on the health status and HPA axis and ANS functioning of adult patients with RA. Our findings in this review were: (1) In response to mental and physical effort and applied physiological stressors, patients demonstrate ANS hyporesponsiveness and "too normal" HPA axis responsiveness considering the elevated immune activity. A premorbid defect, past and current inflammatory activity, past and current stress, and physical deconditioning may explain disturbed physiological responses. (2) After brief naturalistic stressors, self-perceived and clinician's ratings of disease activity are increased; inflammation parameters have been insufficiently examined. (3) Major life events do not univocally affect disease status, but appear able to modify disease activity in a positive or negative way, depending on the nature, duration, and dose of the accompanying physiological stress response. (4) Enduring (e.g., work-related or interpersonal) stressors are associated with perceived health. Because this stressor category mingles with personality variables, the mere observation of a correlation does not prove that chronic stressors provoke health changes, although this might be the case. (5) Not one study rigorously examined the prospective hypothesis that past stressors (e.g., childhood victimization or pre-onset stressful incidents) may trigger RA or aggravate existing RA, which is a realistic belief for some patients.