Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, 18 Innovation Walk, 3168, Clayton, VIC, Australia.
Department of Neurology, Alfred Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Neuropsychol Rev. 2023 Dec;33(4):856-870. doi: 10.1007/s11065-022-09567-y. Epub 2022 Dec 2.
Psychological stress is a potential modifiable risk factor for cognitive decline. However, the extent to which self-reported psychological stress is differentially associated with decline in specific cognitive domains remains unclear. Differences may be due to heterogeneity in the aspects of psychological stress investigated, for example, neuroticism (which is linked to vulnerability to stress), perceived stress, or exposure to stressful life events. This review aims to establish the associations between these aspects of self-reported psychological stress and cognitive decline. PsychINFO, Embase and MEDLINE were searched from database inception to September 2021. Studies were included if they were observational, prospective, and if they investigated the association between self-reported psychological stress and cognitive decline in adults with a minimum mean age of 40 years at baseline. Thirty studies satisfied the inclusion criteria, with most examining neuroticism (n = 17) as a predictor of cognitive decline. Fewer examined perceived stress (n = 7) or stressful life events (n = 6). There was evidence of an association between neuroticism and cognitive decline, particularly in the domain of memory. Similarly, across studies, perceived stress was also associated with memory decline. Research investigating the relationship between stressful life events and cognitive decline had fewer outcomes to interpret. Overall, the findings highlight that memory may be particularly susceptible to high levels of neuroticism and perceived stress. We identified a lack of research into some cognitive domains, such as executive function, which should be addressed by future studies.
心理压力是认知能力下降的一个潜在可改变的风险因素。然而，自我报告的心理压力与特定认知领域的下降之间存在何种程度的差异尚不清楚。这种差异可能是由于所研究的心理压力方面存在异质性，例如神经质（与对压力的易感性有关）、感知压力或经历压力性生活事件。本综述旨在确定自我报告的心理压力的这些方面与认知能力下降之间的关联。从数据库建立到 2021 年 9 月，在 PsychINFO、Embase 和 MEDLINE 上进行了检索。如果研究是观察性的、前瞻性的，并且研究了自我报告的心理压力与基线时平均年龄至少为 40 岁的成年人认知能力下降之间的关联，则将其纳入研究。有 30 项研究符合纳入标准，其中大多数研究（n=17）将神经质作为认知能力下降的预测因素进行了研究。研究感知压力（n=7）或压力性生活事件（n=6）的较少。神经质与认知能力下降之间存在关联的证据，特别是在记忆领域。同样，在研究中，感知压力也与记忆下降有关。研究压力性生活事件与认知能力下降之间关系的研究结果较少，难以解读。总的来说，研究结果表明，记忆力可能特别容易受到高神经质和感知压力的影响。我们发现，一些认知领域，如执行功能，缺乏研究，这应该是未来研究的重点。
