Title:Individual Differences in the Neurobiology of Social Stress: Implications for Depression-Cardiovascular Disease Comorbidity
VOLUME: 12 ISSUE: 2
Author(s):Susan K. Wood
Affiliation:University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience, Basic Sci Bldg 1, D28A, 6439 Garners Ferry Rd, Columbia, SC 29209, USA.
Keywords:Coping, corticotropin releasing factor, dorsal raphe, locus coeruleus, resident-intruder paradigm.
Abstract:Stress initiates a cascade of complex neural and peripheral changes that promote healthy adaption to stress, but
when unabated, leads to pathology. Fascinating individual differences arise in the ability to cope with a stressor, rendering
an individual more or less likely to develop stress-induced pathologies such as depression, anxiety, and cardiovascular
disease. In this review we evaluate recent findings that investigate the neural underpinnings of adopting a passive or active
coping response during social defeat stress. Because passive coping is associated with vulnerability to stress-related
pathologies and active coping confers resiliency, understanding neurobiological adaptations associated with these diverse
coping strategies may reveal biomarkers or targets impacting stress susceptibility. The co-occurrence of stress-induced
depression and cardiovascular disease is becoming increasingly clear. Therefore this review focuses on the central
mechanisms capable of contributing to psychopathology and cardiovascular disease such as corticotropin releasing factor,
neuropeptide Y, monoamines, cytokines and oxidative stress. The impetus for this review is to highlight neurobiological
systems that warrant further evaluation for their contribution to the pathophysiology of depression-cardiovascular disease
comorbidity.
