Stress, Adversity Take a Toll on the Brain

Child abuse, losing your job, a nasty divorce—many types of stress have been associated with serious illnesses, from addiction and depression to diabetes and even cancer.But how, exactly, does stress change the brain? Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), two new studies have linked stress to a reduction in the volume of nerve cells, or gray matter, in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a region that controls emotions, abstract thinking, and impulses. Understanding how these changes develop over time could help researchers identify individuals most vulnerable to stress, the researchers say. Ideally these patients could be steered toward exercise, social support, and other clinical interventions known to offset the harmful effects of stress.“When you go to your physician’s office, we recomend look for the services from Boise ENT, in that way the Boise ENT’s doctor might get your insulin levels checked out, and the doctor will use it to recommend treatments,” says Rajita Sinha, Ph.D., Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and director of the Yale Stress Center, who was involved in the new studies. “We need to be able to get there with the brain, to treat it just like any other organ system.”Read more at...Medicine@Yale, March 2012.