STRESS-INDUCED PHYSIOLOGICAL,

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND
BEHAVIORAL
DEFICITS
SEMINAR
 INTRODUCTION

STRESS

“Stress is a non-specific response of the body to any demand”

Or
“a stimulus that causes an organism to deviate from baseline functioning/
homeostasis”
(Hans Selye, 1950)

The term stress coined by Hans Selye in 1950s.

Stress is known to activate HPA Axis (Hans Selye 1970)

Stress effects vary with Magnitude & duration of exposure
Stress effects at different levels
 Hans Seyle et al STRESS Canon et al

Eu-stress Dis-stress

Pituitary Gland (AP) Pituitary Gland (AP)

Adrenal Medulla Adrenal Cortex

Adrenaline Cortisol
Physical

Physiological

Psychological
behavioral, emotional, or cognitive reaction
Positive Negative
Productive Destructing
Strengthening Devastating
hope, meaning, Systemic Effect anger, frustration,
positive mood, etc negative mood, etc
STRESS & HPA AXIS
Chronic restrain stress leads to

Neuronal atrophy & Dendritic shortening in Hippocampus

(Wellman et al.,2001, Kim & Yoon 1998, McEwen 2002a)
Chronic Restrain Stress causes Hippocampal Atrophy
that leads not only…………

 Decreases the regulation of HPA axis

H Selye 1970, Sapolsky 1991, hermann 1989, McEven 2000

 But also other Hippocampal functions...

Hippocampal dependent learning

Spatial memory
Smith et al1995, McEven 2000

Working/ reference memory

 er
eth Effects of Stress on the brain
g
l to
A
Stress causes neuronal atrophy

Stress decreases AChE activity

Stress decreases dopamine levels

Stress HPA axis Disregulation

Chronic stress impairs spatial learning and memory

T-Maze
Morris Water Maze

Decreases hippocampal long-term potentiation

Chronic stress decreases neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus

(Duman et al. 2000, Pham et al, 2003, Mirescu and Gould. 2006)
Acute Vs Chronic Stress
 STRESS DISORDERS
Generally thought that acute stress is beneficial for the body. It increases energy mobilization, appetite,
enhances immunity, promotes the movement of the immune cells to places, where needed. It increases
attention, memory storage, and enhances cognitive function. But when the stress is chronic and prolonged, it
increases abdominal fat, causes atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, muscle wasting, bone thinning, suppresses
movement of immune cells and decreases immunity. In the brain, it causes decreased attention, memory
storage and other cognitive problems. Stress induced disorders in various systems of the body (Young and
Welsh, 2005)

System Disease
Nervous
Migraine, headaches, tingling sensation in fingers, toes,
Sleep disturbances, aching jaw, tight forehead, sweaty
palms, anxiety, anger, concentration problems, depression,
learning and memory problems, PTSD, Parkinson’s Disease,
and Alzheimer’s Disease

Digestive Problems retaining food, change in appetite, and ulcer

Immune Constant low grade fever, Viral infections, HIV infection.

Respiratory Tightness in chest, back, shoulders, Shortness of breath,

dizziness, cold, or sore throat and asthma, Cardiovascular Heart palpitations,
increased blood pressure, myocardial Infarction

Others Diabetes, breast cancer, cervical cancer

REVERSAL OF STRESS-INDUCED DEFICITS
 REVERSAL OF STRESS-INDUCED DEFICITS

Tianeptine, an antidepressant that lowers extracellular serotonin levels and

phenytoin that prevents excitatory amino acid’s action have been shown to
block the impairment following chronic restraint stress (Luine et al., 1994).

Moclobemide has been shown to improve the chronic stress-induced deficits

(Nowakowska et al., 2001)

Fluoxetine has been shown to reverse the chronic mild stress-induced

dendriticatrophy by decreasing nitric oxide synthase expression (Luo and Tan,
2001),

whereas another study reported that fluoxetine did not alter the stress-induced
deficits in radial arm maze behaviour (McEwen et al., 1997).

Intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) rewarding behavioural experience and

exposure to enriched environment can reverse the deficits of chronic restraint
stress in a T-maze task, water maze task and AChE levels in the
hippocampus.
 THANK
YOU

RELIEVE YOUR STRESS

BY HOMELY ENVIRONMENT & ENRICHED ENVIRONMENT