Chronic stress creates a different brain:· Salerian AJ

                                                      

             Letters From Modern Psychiatry

Alen J Salerian MD  www.modernpsychiatry.gr      

                   STRESSED BRAINS ARE DIFFERENT

Normal

Stressed

   Life is stress. To be alive and not to deal with stress is fiction.

   It is true that how we manage our lives ,schedule, emails, phone and voice mail and text messages is crucial for  good health.  It is also true that the final arbitrator of stress is our biological resilience- determined by serotonin, dopamine, endorphin balance in crucial brain regions. 

    Your body and brain are different under stress. You pump more ACTH, cortisol, adrenaline, dopamine to trigger increased heart rate, BP, blood sugar and insulin, and accelerate body metabolism to produce more free radicals and faster ageing.

    Chronic stress creates a different brain:·             

            Your prefrontal cortex must work over time to manage messages from the limbic brain.

·             This leads to a less robust prefrontal cortex function by depletion of dopamine manifested by fatigue, low energy level, diminished resilience and ability to problem solve. The symptoms may also include heightened sensitivity to pain or fibromyalgia.

·             Functional MRI images of stressed brains show red hot limbic regions bombarding the prefrontal cortex. Both chronic stress and chronic pain result in brain atrophy and loss of grey matter in prefrontal cortex and cortex.

    Chronic Stress=Mini Depression

·             Fatigue.

·             Low energy.

·             Insomnia.

·             Lower tolerance to stress (Blaming external sources of stress for stress).

·             Heightened sensitivity to pain, noise and other sensory input.

·             Diminished ability to problem solve.

·             Diminished concentration and memory.

·             Heightened physical- psychosomatic complaints.

References :

1.Salerian AJ ,Brain: A Beautiful journey, Amazon  2017 November.

2.Apkarian V,et al, Chronic pain causes  loss of grey matter in  cortex, Neuroscience

3.Mora F.(1995). The brain and the mind. In the new Oxford  textbook of psychiatry, M.G. Gelder, J.J. Lopez Ibor,and N. Andreasen (eds) Oxford: Oxford University press.

4. Salerian, A.J., Altar, A.C. .The prefrontal cortex influence over sub cortical and limbic regions governs antidepressant response. Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging 204-[2012] 1-12.

5.Salerian, A. J.,(2015) Sensitive dependence of mental function on prefrontal cortex, Journal of Psychology And Clinical Psychiatry, volume 2 issue 1.