Citation

Agorastos A, Pervanidou P, Chrousos GP, Kolaitis G. Hormones (Athens) 2018; 17(4): 507-520.

Affiliation

Department of Child Psychiatry, School of Medicine, "Aghia Sophia" Children's Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Hellenic Endocrine Society)

DOI

10.1007/s42000-018-0065-x

PMID

30280316

Abstract

Experience of early life stress (ELS) and trauma is highly prevalent in the general population and has a high public health impact, as it can trigger a health-related risk cascade and lead to impaired homeostatic balance and elevated cacostatic load even decades later. The prolonged neuropsychobiological impact of ELS can, thus, be conceptualized as a common developmental risk factor for disease associated with increased physical and mental morbidity in later life. ELS during critical periods of brain development with elevated neuroplasticity could exert a programming effect on particular neuronal networks related to the stress response and lead to enduring neuroendocrine alterations, i.e., hyper- or hypoactivation of the stress system, associated with adult hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and glucocorticoid signaling dysregulation. This paper reviews the pathophysiology of the human stress response and provides evidence from human research on the most acknowledged stress axis-related neuroendocrine pathways exerting the enduring adverse effects of ELS and mediating the cumulative long-term risk of disease vulnerability in adulthood.

Language: en

Keywords

Autonomic nervous system; Childhood adversity; Childhood trauma; Cortisol; Early life stress; Endocrine system; Glucocorticoids; HPA axis