Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Biopsychology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2013 Sep;26(5):440-5. doi: 10.1097/YCO.0b013e328363b4ed.
In recent years, a growing interest has emerged in behavioural medicine to examine the role of acute and chronic stress as a predisposing and contributing factor to physical health and illness. For a deeper understanding of these associations, research is in need of biological markers for alterations in biological stress systems. This review will summarize a selection of important recent findings in this area of research.
We will focus on essential peripheral stress-sensitive physiological systems, that is, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the autonomic nervous system, and the immune system. We will present findings on commonly used stress biomarkers (cortisol, alpha-amylase, pro-inflammatory cytokines) regarding alterations in basal activity and stress-dependent reactivity in these systems, and discuss selected findings on intervention-induced changes of these biomarkers.
This review will highlight new developments and guide readers in their choice of suitable study designs and outcomes in behavioural medicine. The reviewed studies included here encourage optimism that the employment of stress biomarkers in behavioural medicine has the potential to significantly improve our understanding of physical health and illness.
近年来，行为医学越来越关注急性和慢性应激作为身体健康和疾病的诱发和促成因素的作用。为了更深入地了解这些关联，研究需要生物应激系统改变的生物学标志物。本综述将总结该研究领域的一些重要的最新发现。
我们将重点关注重要的外周应激敏感生理系统，即下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴、自主神经系统和免疫系统。我们将介绍关于这些系统中基础活动和应激反应性改变的常用应激生物标志物（皮质醇、α-淀粉酶、促炎细胞因子）的发现，并讨论这些生物标志物的干预诱导变化的选定发现。
本综述将强调新的发展，并指导读者选择行为医学中合适的研究设计和结果。本文综述所包含的研究结果令人乐观地认为，应激生物标志物在行为医学中的应用有可能极大地提高我们对身体健康和疾病的理解。
