Title : Increasing prevalence of autoimmune diseases due to stress
Abstract:
Background: Evidence of relationship between stressful life events and the onset of autoimmune diseases. Stress plays a major role in autoimmune diseases. The body’s stress response is regulated by autonomic nervous system ( ANS) and the hypothalamic- pituitary – adrenal ( HPA) axis. Over time, chronic stress leads to dysfunction in HPA axis, which leads to hormone imbalances.
Material: https://arapc.com/stress-and-autoimmune-dieases/, case study of patients diagnosed with autoimmune disorders and controls regarding the incidence of stressful events occurring before diagnosis and validated questionnaires.
Purpose: To look for differences in number and type of stressful life events, understanding immune dysregulation caused by stress which leads to autoimmune disorders and find methods to prevent it.
Result: About 80% of people report unusual emotional stress prior to developing an autoimmune condition. In a case–control study conducted in Croatia, Simoni? et al, used a questionnaire to study the frequency of stressful events during childhood and adolescence and found that patients diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis had higher scores than a control group without arthritis.
Compared with the unexposed population, patients with stress-related disorders were at increased risk of autoimmune disease (HR, 1.36 [95% CI, 1.33-1.40]). The HRs for patients with posttraumatic stress disorder were 1.46 (95% CI, 1.32-1.61) for any and 2.29 (95% CI, 1.72-3.04) for multiple (≥3) autoimmune diseases.
Conclusion: The results suggest that stressful conditions play an important role in etiology and pathogenesis of autoimmune disorders. Only perspective studies can provide more certain inference about this relationship. Stress reduction techniques such as medication, yoga, vagus nerve stimulation can have a positive influence on anyone with autoimmune diseases.
