title: Mental health consequences of stress and trauma: allostatic load markers for practice and policy with a focus on Indigenous health.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Mental health, well-being, and social life are intimately related as is evident from the higher incidence of psychiatric illness in individuals exposed to social stress and adversity. Several biological pathways linking social adversity to health outcomes are heavily investigated in the aims of facilitating early identification and prevention of adverse health outcomes. We provide a practice-orientated overview of the allostatic load model and how it relates to metabolic and cardiovascular comorbidity in psychiatric disorders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Allostatic load brings together a set of neuroendocrine, metabolic, immune and cardiovascular biomarkers that are elevated in individuals with adverse early life experiences and are predictive of cardiovascular and metabolic risk in psychiatric illness of critical importance for Indigenous Australians.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Student, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Maximus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.affiliation: Graduate Student, Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Robert-Paul
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Juster
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor of Pharmacology, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences; Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia zoltan.sarnyai@jcu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Zoltán
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sarnyai
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D052636:Allostasis / Q000502:physiology*; D001315:Australia; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003687:Dehydroepiandrosterone / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism; D008603:Mental Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D000067073:Psychological Trauma / Q000208:ethnology / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012931:Social Environment; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D003687:Dehydroepiandrosterone; D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: Indigenous peoples; allostatic load; biomarkers; chronic stress