Oxidative Stress and the Brain: A Working Hypothesis for the Generation of Psychological Stress

TLDR: Focusing on different regions of the brain, manifestations of chronic stress in terms of “typical” stress-related syndromes and diseases, such as major depression, psychosomatic heart diseases, and the impact of stress on the immune system are described.

Abstract: While we have seen in Chap. 3 that stress is an ambivalent phenomenon that is at the same time unavoidable and necessary for life and—if exceeding an organism’s capacities to respond to stress—life threatening. In this chapter, we turn to the often-destructive effects and detrimental consequences of chronic stress. Focusing on different regions of the brain, we will describe manifestations of chronic stress in terms of “typical” stress-related syndromes and diseases, such as major depression, psychosomatic heart diseases, and the impact of stress on the immune system. The findings from research we draw on in this chapter concerning such adverse outcomes of stress exposure clearly touch not solely on the physiology of stress but also on stress’s psychological side. This is a crucial aspect when we address the stress of poverty. Before going into a deeper conversation between stress research and poverty studies in later chapters of this book, here we will present some anchor points on the relationship of chronic stress and the experience of poverty, and provide a working hypothesis for the generation of psychological stress.