The Nature of Stress Disorder: Papers Read at the Conference of the Society for Psychosomatic Research Held at the Royal College of Physicians.

Abstract

Nowadays, we hear a lot about stress. Recently, Asher wrote a delightful comment upon the relationship between stress and organic disease. I quote from his Lettsomian lecture, published in the Lancet 2:417, 1959: Consider the ubiquitous stress factor, now accepted as the origin of many modern diseases—peptic ulcer, asthma, and ulcerative colitis. Here is a particularly well-written passage of this subject, from the pen of a distinguished physician: 'Peptic ulcer—one of the pestilent camp followers of civilization—one of the penalties we pay for our boasted progress, seems to be more than keeping pace with our advancement, and to be attaching itself especially to certain forms and phases of civilization. There is reason to believe that it is, if not of modern origin, at least of modern growth, and that modern habits and modern modes of life have something to do with its propagation. This is essentially a feverish and fidgetty