Source Of Chronic Stress Research Articles

Peer ratings of chronic stress: can spouses and friends provide reliable and valid assessments of a target person's level of chronic stress?

AbstractThe aim of this study was to determine whether spouses and friends could provide reliable ratings and discriminate between different sources of chronic stress as experienced by a target person. Further, this study assessed the convergence of self‐ and observer ratings of chronic stress. The target persons were 384 executives from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Observer ratings were obtained from 275 spouses and 127 friends of the executives. The results imply that both spouses and friends can provide reliable ratings of different sources of chronic stress, which are equivalent to the reliabilities observed in the executives' self‐reports. Two independent factor analyses suggested that the spouses and friends were able to discriminate between the eight distinct sources of chronic stress proposed by the Trier Inventory of Chronic Stress. Convergent validities within the pairs executive–friend (range: 0.30–0.57) and executive–spouse (0.30–0.54) were all significant and indicate good self‐observer agreement in ratings of chronic stress. Generally, stress scales capturing work‐related chronic stress were found to yield higher convergent validities than scales assessing chronic stress due to social events. The results of this study imply that chronic stress can be validly assessed by well‐acquainted peers and spouses. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Perceived Discrimination, Perceived Stress, and Mental and Physical Health Among Mexican-Origin Adults

This study provided a test of the minority status stress model by examining whether perceived discrimination would directly affect health outcomes even when perceived stress was taken into account among 215 Mexican-origin adults. Perceived discrimination predicted depression and poorer general health, and marginally predicted health symptoms, when perceived stress was taken into account. Perceived stress predicted depression and poorer general health while controlling for the effects of perceived discrimination. The influence of perceived discrimination on general health was greater for men than women, and the effect of perceived stress on depression was greater for women than men. Results provide evidence that discrimination is a source of chronic stress above and beyond perceived stress, and the accumulation of these two sources of stress is detrimental to mental and physical health. Findings suggest that mental health and health practitioners need to assess for the effects of discrimination as a stressor along with perceived stress.

Are we eating more than we think? Illegitimate signaling and xenohormesis as participants in the pathogenesis of obesity

Resource utilization may represent a central force driving evolution. A tight link between sensing energy availability and managing energy acquisition and utilization constitutes a common feature among all organisms. While such a link was likely adaptive during prehistoric evolution, modern lifestyles may decouple perceived cues from actual energy availability so as to promote obesity in humans. A particular illegitimate signal is chronic stress, which may shift body phenotype to suit a more conservative state of energy management. In prehistoric times, such a response likely aided survival during periods of low resource availability. However, new sources of chronic stress have emerged that bear little relationship to contextual energy, which is generally abundant in the modern world. In addition, modern techniques of husbandry and agriculture can produce stress in the food chain, such that food itself can act as an illegitimate signal of chronic stress. Obese livestock and unusual fat profiles in farmed fish, meat, and eggs may reflect stress phenotypes. Consumers of stressed foods may sense those signals--a phenomenon known as xenohormesis--and assume the stressed phenotype. This maladaptive process may promote obesity by erroneously biasing hosts towards caloric accumulation in the context of energy abundance. Regional tissue accumulation of fat may indicate local tissue stress. Atherosclerosis may result from stress signals that induce sympathetic bias and regional fat accumulation in vessel adventitia. Medications such as neuroleptics and foods such as diet drinks may generate illegitimate signals by mimicking molecules used for energy management. Implications for the prevention and treatment of dysfunctions related to these derangements are discussed. New strategies for manufacturing biologics by manipulating stress conditions or controlling fatty acid attachments to proteins are envisioned.

Depressed autonomic nervous system function in African Americans and individuals of lower social class: A potential mechanism of race- and class-related disparities in health outcomes

Both race and social class influence cardiovascular outcomes, through mechanisms not yet fully understood. Minority race and lower social class are sources of chronic stress, which can alter autonomic nervous system function. Heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of autonomic function, is also an important predictor of cardiovascular outcomes. To determine whether minority race/ethnicity and lower social class are associated with depressed HRV, we prospectively collected data on sociodemographic, clinical, psychological, and behavioral factors by survey in 360 outpatients undergoing ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring. Heart rate variability (24-hour) was measured by frequency domain analysis. In unadjusted analysis, African Americans had lower HRV than whites, and individuals of lower social class as measured by education, occupation, and income had lower HRV than those of higher class. In multivariable analysis, both race and social class were independent predictors of ultralow frequency power after controlling for clinical and psychological factors. African Americans were 3.45 (95% CI 1.74-6.98, P = .0004) times as likely as whites to have depressed HRV (ultralow frequency power, lowest tertile), and non-college graduates 2.94 (95% CI, 1.71-5.14, P = .0001) times as likely as college graduates to have depressed HRV. Heart rate variability is lower in African Americans and individuals of lower social class, independent of the effects of measured clinical, psychological, or behavioral factors. This suggests that the adverse effects of minority race and lower social class on cardiovascular outcomes may be mediated by dysregulation of autonomic function.

Loss of genetic diversity in Harpacticoida near offshore platforms

Offshore oil and gas production platforms can be a source of chronic stress that could lead to sublethal impacts on resident benthic organisms. In June 1993 and January 1994, genetic diversity of Harpacticoida (Copepoda) living proximal to operating, offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico was estimated to test if platforms are associated with strong selective pressures. Because harpacticoids have short generation times and direct benthic development, they are suitable organisms for examining population responses. Genetic diversity was estimated by comparing restriction fragment length polymorphisms generated from mitochondrial DNA amplified by the polymerase chain reaction on individuals of five species (Cletodes sp., Enhydrosoma pericoense, Normanella sp., Robertsonia sp., and Tachidiella sp.). Populations living at Near regions (stations 3 km from a platform). The levels of haplotype diversity exhibited by the Far populations were similar at three different platforms located hundreds of kilometers apart. The differences in haplotype diversity between Near and Far regions were the result of a higher proportion of dominant haplotypes, and a loss of less common haplotypes. Haplotypic diversity was inversely correlated with a multivariate measurement of levels of sediment contaminants. The pattern of haplotype diversity on the Gulf of Mexico continental shelf seems to consist of a uniform level of haplotype diversity, punctuated by islands of lower diversity around oil and gas platforms. The selective pressures that lead to a loss of genetic diversity may be the result of contaminants, other differences in the physico-chemical environment, or disturbance in general.

Psychiatric Implications of Missile Attacks on a Civilian Population

To determine the proportion of hospitalized patients who had stress reactions as a result of missile attacks during the Persian Gulf War and evaluate the factors that influenced their evacuation. Review of medical records of patients hospitalized as a result of missile attacks. During the Persian Gulf War in the winter of 1991, Israel received 18 missile attacks involving 39 surface-to-surface Scud missiles. The uncertainty in time, place, and type of warhead, conventional or chemical, was a source of chronic stress and the immediate cause for many traumatic stress reactions at or near the missile attack sites. Data from victims who were injured after each missile attack were available through a central hookup between 12 local hospitals and the Medical Corps of the Israeli Defence Force. The number of persons diagnosed in the hospital as psychological casualties after each missile attack. Approximately 43% of the 773 casualties evacuated to hospitals were diagnosed as psychological casualties, and an additional 27% had mistakenly injected themselves with atropine. Data also indicated that triage of psychological casualties to hospitals was more a function of the rescue team's training and preparation than the severity or extent of injury or damage. Optimal treatment during events that cause mass casualties requires proper preparation of rescue teams as well as reorganization of the hospital's psychiatric services. The threat of chemical warfare affected the number and nature of stress reactions.