Author
|
Submitted to: Endocrinology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 3/19/2008 Publication Date: 6/30/2008 Citation: Laugero, K.D. 2008. Filling in the gaps of chronic psychological stress disease models: what's metabolic profiling have to do with it?. Endocrinology. 149(6):2712-2713, 2008. Interpretive Summary: This paper presents a new view of psychological stress and stress related mental and physical disease. The article urges the importance of understanding the metabolic responses to psychological stress, and through the use of a new conceptual stress model, the author emphasizes a link between metabolic function, the behavioral response to stress, and stress related disease. Technical Abstract: Chronic psychological stress has profound effects on human health and well being, and it is generally accepted that psychological stress is a burgeoning public health problem in modern day life. However, models used to describe or predict stress-related disease are generally plagued by the paucity of information that characterizes individuals with stress, and this is particularly true for system metabolic change. Much basic work is needed to expose the interrelationships between chronic psychological stress and broad scale metabolic system change. Depke and colleagues recently used liver metabolic gene profiling in the mouse to characterize broad shifts in energy metabolism that result from acute and repeated psychological stress. Their findings highlight an important adaptive shift in metabolic function from acute to repeated stress and yield a deeper insight into the metabolic processes that potentially lead to energy loss and vulnerability to disease (e.g., immunosuppression; depression). Moreover, their findings, which expose potentially important details of stress-related metabolic networks, may provide greater insight into the processes that characterize chronic stress and potentially mediate stress system activity and adaptation. A hallmark of individuals undergoing chronic stress is heightened behavioral and HPA activity; hyper-catabolic activity may potentially be another significant marker of chronic psychological stress and chronic stress disease. |
