Surviving Stress: Scientists Search For Causes Of Disorders Resulting From Traumatic Stress

Scientists Search For Causes Of Disorders Resulting From Traumatic Stress

WASHINGTON, May 25 - Attacks on the body's delicate biochemical equilibrium (homeostasis) by physical and psychological threats triggers an "exquisite repertoire" of events. This is according to a review of the research in this area published in the May 25 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. The brain and the endocrine and immune systems spring into action to reestablish that equilibrium. If they fail, debilitating illness results, says C&EN 's Lois R. Ember. According to Robert M. Sapolsky of Stanford University, "Stress may be the thing that takes a part of our body that was marginally damaged by exposure to God-knows-what sort of toxins and pushes it into overt disease."

By exploring the molecular and cellular events that occur in the traumatic stress response, scientists hope to develop better treatments for the resulting disorders. Among their findings, as reported by Ember, are:

• Individual response is not accounted for just by genetics. Bruce McEwen of Rockefeller University says the individual's perception of the situation and his or her general health are two major factors.

• Early experience may influence and set an individual's response to subsequent stress. Michael J. Meaney of McGill University found that rats handled in infancy deal better with stress in later life than those not handled in infancy.

• A properly functioning feedback mechanism ensures that the stress response is limited in duration. This is accomplished in part by the steroid cortisol, which is produced by the cortex and sent to calm down the brain. But if the stress system is not shut down, cortisol continues to be made and will eventually damage the hippocamus - the site of emotion, consolidated memory, and learning.

• Sonia J. Lupien of McGill University has found that normal elderly humans with impaired memory had high cortisol levels, while those with declining cortisol levels were able to negotiate and manage stress. She speculates that cortisol levels may be a biological marker between normal and pathological aging.

• The brain and the immune system are inextricably linked and essentially act as an integrated system when the body comes under stress. This finding has lead to a relatively new scientific field called psychoneuroimmunology.

• Posttraumatic stress disorder was cited by a White House-appointed committee as a factor in the Gulf War Syndrome. The committee also said that stress has been a factor in poorly understood war syndromes dating back to the Civil War. In World War I it was called shell shock.

• Not all challenges to homeostasis are harmful. Some are needed to get you out of a dangerous situation, and some are necessary for emotional and intellectual growth. Tracey J. Shors of Princeton University has shown that "some stress actually enhances the ability to learn, but only in males."

A nonprofit organization with a membership of more than 155,000 chemists and chemical engineers, the American Chemical Society publishes scientific journals, convenes major research conferences, and provides educational and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus Ohio.