Department of Psychology, University of Florence, Italy.
Curr Pharm Des. 2012;18(35):5663-74. doi: 10.2174/138161212803530907.
Stressful life events and dysfunctional Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) axis have been implicated in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders, including anxiety disorders. This paper attempts to review the existing literature on childhood traumata, recent life events, HPA axis functioning and their relationship in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Panic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Social Phobia. Preclinical and clinical models will be analyzed. Stressful life events seem to have a role in the onset and in the course of these disorders and HPA axis abnormalities have been reported in almost all anxiety disorders. The hypothesis that early stressful life events may provoke alterations of the stress response and thus of the HPA axis, that can endure during adulthood, predisposing individuals to develop psychopathology, will be evaluated.
生活应激事件和下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴功能失调与包括焦虑障碍在内的精神疾病的发病机制有关。本文试图对创伤后应激障碍、惊恐障碍、广泛性焦虑障碍、强迫症和社交恐惧症中有关儿童期创伤、近期生活事件、HPA 轴功能及其相关性的现有文献进行综述。将对临床前和临床模型进行分析。应激性生活事件似乎在这些疾病的发病和病程中起作用，几乎所有的焦虑障碍都有 HPA 轴异常的报道。本文将评估这样一种假说，即早期生活应激事件可能引发应激反应，进而引发 HPA 轴的改变，这种改变在成年期持续存在，使个体易患精神病理学。
