HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS REGISTER		Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced]

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this link to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Vale, S Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Vale, S

Psychosocial stress and cardiovascular diseases

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Salvador Vale
Departemanto de Investigación, Indesalud, Calle 14 por 49, Altos Hospital Manuel Campos, Colonia Centro, 24010, Campeche, Mexico; svalemayorga{at}yahoo.com.mx

Fifty five years after the first finding relating mood disturbances and cardiovascular diseases, there is still debate on the formation of a cogent conception embracing all the fragments of insight within the various aspects relating psychosocial stress to cardiovascular diseases. The clinical comorbidity is empirically evident, but there are ambiguous research results limiting the value of the proposed pathophysiological mechanisms. Psychosocial stress represents here any event that relates psychological phenomena to the social environment and to the associated pathophysiological changes. Stress denotes the external or environmental factors to which people are exposed, as well as the behavioural or biological reaction to it (response that some authors call "distress"). Cardiovascular diseases will be considered here only when being the consequence of chronic inflammatory disease of arteries (atherosclerosis).The question is: Are there pathophysiological reliable mechanisms relating psychosocial stress to the development of cardiovascular diseases?

Abbreviations: CVD, cardiovascular disease; PSS, psychosocial stress; SNS, sympathetic nervous system; HPA, hypothalamo-pituary-adrenal; CRF, corticotrophin releasing factor; GR, glucocorticoid receptor; IL, interleukin; TNF, tumour necrosis factor ; VCAM, vascular cell adhesion molecule; COX 2, cyclooxygenase 2

Keywords: psychosocial stress; cardiovascular diseases; atherosclerosis; cortisol; catecholamines

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. K. Roepke, B. T. Mausbach, K. Aschbacher, M. G. Ziegler, J. E. Dimsdale, P. J. Mills, R. von Kanel, S. Ancoli-Israel, T. L. Patterson, and I. Grant Personal Mastery is Associated With Reduced Sympathetic Arousal in Stressed Alzheimer Caregivers Am J Geriatr Psychiatry, April 1, 2008; 16(4): 310 - 317. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Vale Clinical Depression Versus Distress Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: Not Just a Question of Semantics: Response to Fisher et al. Diabetes Care, July 1, 2007; 30(7): e73 - e73. [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Vale Depressive Symptoms, Risk of Stroke and the Stress Response Stroke, June 1, 2007; 38(6): e34 - e34. [Full Text] [PDF]