title: Vulnerability to "stress".
abstract: "Stress," as a short-hand designation denoting psychosocial pressures contributing to illness, falls short of a useful scientific concept for understanding organismic environmental relationships unless care is taken to specify the psychosocial variables involved, the population studied, the health variables observed, and the measurement methods used. In this paper animal studies are reviewed which reveal that developmental stages combined with environmental and psychosocial changes can increase the susceptibility to medical disorders. Moreover, human studies are reviewed corroborating these animal studies and pointing to life events predisposing to medical and psychiatric disorders. Early parent-child relationships, psychodynamic variables, and family parameters can increase vulnerability to disease. Psychotherapists should be familiar with these biomedical and psychosocial factors influencing vulnerability to illness to facilitate their diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic skills.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D004597:Electroshock; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006234:Handling, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000097:blood; D051379:Mice; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D008995:Monoamine Oxidase / Q000097:blood; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000503:physiopathology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D051381:Rats; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: D008995:Monoamine Oxidase