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Stress, vulnerability and resilience, a developmental approach.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The origins of mental disorders arise often in childhood. Early life is a period of unique sensitivity with long lasting effects on mental health. However, the mechanisms for these effects remain unclear. OBJECTIVE:This thesis describes a variety of studies using a developmental framework to promote greater understanding of the influence of nature (genotypes) and nurture (e.g., environmental risk and protective factors) on outcomes later in childhood. METHOD:The aim of this thesis is to investigate gene and environmental influences on behavioural, emotional, and cognitive outcomes in different samples from the Netherlands and Singapore, most derived from the general population. We assessed early life influences from a neurobiological, social, and a psychological perspective by using a biopsychosocial framework. RESULTS:Our studies support the hypothesis that all experiences during life, including early experiences in utero, will influence the expression of genes and in the end the mental health of individuals. However, genotypes influencing stress responses are found to be "plastic," which implies that they can be modulated by environmental experiences during life. In line with this, patterns of resilience are found to be context-dependent too. CONCLUSIONS:The model of "epigenetic programming" suggests the predictive power of the environment in utero and early childhood on mental health later in life. This association is probably determined by a neurodevelopmental pathway with individual differences in neural and endocrine responses to stress.

SUBMITTER: Broekman BF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3402146 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Stress, vulnerability and resilience, a developmental approach.

Broekman Birit Froukje Philippien BF

European journal of psychotraumatology 20111015

<h4>Background</h4>The origins of mental disorders arise often in childhood. Early life is a period of unique sensitivity with long lasting effects on mental health. However, the mechanisms for these effects remain unclear.<h4>Objective</h4>This thesis describes a variety of studies using a developmental framework to promote greater understanding of the influence of nature (genotypes) and nurture (e.g., environmental risk and protective factors) on outcomes later in childhood.<h4>Method</h4>The ...[more]

PMID: 22893819

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Project description:The role of altered brain mitochondrial regulation in psychiatric pathologies, including Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), has attracted increasing attention. Aberrant mitochondrial functions were suggested to underlie distinct inter-individual vulnerability to stress-related MDD syndrome. In this context, insulin receptor sensitizers (IRSs) that regulate brain metabolism have become a focus of recent research, as their use in pre-clinical studies can help to elucidate the role of mitochondrial dynamics in this disorder and contribute to the development of new antidepressant treatment. Here, following 2-week chronic mild stress (CMS) using predation, social defeat, and restraint, MDD-related behaviour and brain molecular markers have been investigated along with the hippocampus-dependent performance and emotionality in mice that received the IRS dicholine succinate (DS). In a sucrose test, mice were studied for the key feature of MDD, a decreased sensitivity to reward, called anhedonia. Based on this test, animals were assigned to anhedonic and resilient-to-stress-induced-anhedonia groups, using a previously established criterion of a decrease in sucrose preference below 65%. Such assignment was based on the fact that none of control, non-stressed animals displayed sucrose preference that would be smaller than this value. DS-treated stressed mice displayed ameliorated behaviours in a battery of assays: sucrose preference, coat state, the Y-maze, the marble test, tail suspension, and nest building. CMS-vulnerable mice exhibited overexpression of the inflammatory markers Il-1β, tnf, and Cox-1, as well as 5-htt and 5-ht2a-R, in various brain regions. The alterations in hippocampal gene expression were the closest to clinical findings and were studied further. DS-treated, stressed mice showed normalised hippocampal expression of the plasticity markers Camk4, Camk2, Pka, Adcy1, Creb-ar, Nmda-2r-ar, and Nmda-2r-s. DS-treated and non-treated stressed mice who were resilient or vulnerable to anhedonia were compared for hippocampal mitochondrial pathway regulation using Illumina profiling. Resilient mice revealed overexpression of the mitochondrial complexes NADH dehydrogenase, succinate dehydrogenase, cytochrome bc1, cytochrome c oxidase, F-type and V-type ATPases, and inorganic pyrophosphatase, which were decreased in anhedonic mice. DS partially normalised the expression of both ATPases. We conclude that hippocampal reduction in ATP synthesis is associated with anhedonia and pro-inflammatory brain changes that are ameliorated by DS.

Project description:Non-technical summaryOur analysis shows that the framing of social vulnerability is shaped by a narrow definition of resilience, focusing on post-disaster return and recovery responses. This perspective does not account for the dynamism and non-stationarity of social-ecological systems (SES) which is becoming increasingly important in the face of accelerating environmental change. Incorporating social-ecological resilience into social vulnerability analysis can improve coastal governance by accounting for adaptation and transformation, as well as scale and cross-scale interactions.Technical summarySocial vulnerability analysis has been unable to deliver outcomes that reflect the reality of vulnerability and its consequences in an era characterised by accelerating environmental change. In this work, we used critical discourse analysis and key informant interviews to understand different framings of social vulnerability in coastal governance and management, globally and in New Zealand. We found that the framing of system vulnerability could vary depending on the definition of resilience adopted, which has critical ramifications for coastal governance of linked systems of humans and nature. We found that the framing of social vulnerability in coastal governance is mainly influenced by engineering, community and disaster resilience, focusing on return and recovery governance responses to environmental change (e.g. hurricanes, wildfires). Instead, we suggest a novel perspective based on social-ecological resilience, which more accurately reflects the dynamics of linked systems of humans and nature (SES). This revised perspective, general vulnerability, accounts for the dynamics of Earth's systems across various spatial and temporal scales in the face of accelerating environmental change. Accounting for social-ecological resilience and its core aspects (i.e. panarchy, adaptation and transformation) is essential for informing coastal governance of SES (Do we adapt? or Do we transform the SES?).Social media summarySocial-ecological resilience is essential for social vulnerability analysis in the face of accelerating environmental change.

Project description:BackgroundResilience reflects coping with pregnancy-specific stress, including physiological adaptations of the maternal organism or factors arising from the socioeconomic context, such as low income, domestic violence, drug and alcohol use, lack of a support network and other vulnerability characteristics. Resilience is a dynamic characteristic that should be comparatively evaluated within a specific context; its association with perceived stress and social vulnerability during pregnancy is still not fully understood. This study aimed at exploring maternal resilience, perceived stress and social vulnerability during pregnancy and its associated factors and outcomes.MethodsProspective multicenter cohort study of nulliparous women in Brazil determining resilience (Resilience Scale; RS) and stress (Perceived Stress Scale; PSS) at 28 weeks of gestation (± 1 week). Resilience and stress scores were compared according to sociodemographic characteristics related to maternal/perinatal outcomes and social vulnerability, defined as having low level of education, being adolescent, without a partner or ethnicity other than white.ResultsWe included 383 women who completed the RS and PSS instruments. Most women showed low resilience scores (median: 124.0; IQR 98-143). Women with a low resilience score (RS < 125) were more likely from the Northeast region, adolescents, other than whites, did not study or work, had a low level of education, low family income and received public antenatal care. Higher scores of perceived stress were shown in the Northeast, other than whites, at low levels of education, low annual family income and public antenatal care. Pregnant women with low resilience scores (n = 198) had higher perceived stress scores (median = 28) and at least one vulnerability criterion (n = 181; 91.4%).ConclusionOur results reinforce the role of resilience in protecting women from vulnerability and perceived stress. It may prevent complications and build a positive experience during pregnancy.

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Stress, vulnerability and resilience, a developmental approach.

Publications

Stress, vulnerability and resilience, a developmental approach.

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