title: Severe life stress and oxidative stress in the brain: from animal models to human pathology.
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  Severe life stress (SLS), as opposed to trivial everyday stress, is defined as a serious psychosocial event with the potential of causing an impacting psychological traumatism.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Numerous studies have attempted to understand how the central nervous system (CNS) responds to SLS. This response includes a variety of morphological and neurochemical modifications; among them, oxidative stress is almost invariably observed. Oxidative stress is defined as disequilibrium between oxidant generation and the antioxidant response.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this review, we discuss how SLS leads to oxidative stress in the CNS, and how the latter impacts pathophysiological outcomes. We also critically discuss experimental methods that measure oxidative stress in the CNS. The review covers animal models and human observations. Animal models of SLS include sleep deprivation, maternal separation, and social isolation in rodents, and the establishment of hierarchy in non-human primates. In humans, SLS, which is caused by traumatic events such as child abuse, war, and divorce, is also accompanied by oxidative stress in the CNS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The outcome of SLS in humans ranges from resilience, over post-traumatic stress disorder, to development of chronic mental disorders. Defining the sources of oxidative stress in SLS might in the long run provide new therapeutic avenues.
authors: Department of Pathology and Immunology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. stefania.schiavone@unige.ch
authors: Stefania
authors: S
authors: Schiavone
authors: Vincent
authors: V
authors: Jaquet
authors: Luigia
authors: L
authors: Trabace
authors: Karl-Heinz
authors: KH
authors: Krause
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000503:physiopathology; D008016:Life Change Events; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000503:physiopathology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers