This book is the first to address the most urgent issues, combining a solid basic research approach with applied individual and stress issues, including interventions. Throughout, the focus is on our latest knowledge about various causes of stress and its neuro-cognitive and biological implications. World-renowned authors from Europe as well as the US describe how stress affects the brain of young people as well as adults. They cover the topic from all perspectives, showing how stress affects life in general, from the societal and organizational level to the individual, organ and molecular level. While the book clearly points out stress as a risk factor to health, it also offers a number of evidence-based methods to cope with stress and even ride the positive energy of stress - both as an individual, as well as what managers can do to create a healthy and productive workplace.

Written in a reader-friendly and appealing style, the book provides real-life examples from various laboratories, as well as such events as the Volvo Ocean Race, the largest around-the-globe sailing competition. Essential reading for clinicians and biologists, as well as for a wide range of students, including medicine and public health, but also managers and HR staff.

With a Foreword by Nobel Laureate Professor Arvid Carlsson (Medicine 2000).

Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
List of Contributors
A Multifaceted View of Stress

1. Modern Fatigue: A Historical Perspective (Karin Johannisson)
   1.1 Introduction
   1.2 Overstrain and Modern Society in 1900
   1.3 The "Fatigue Problem"
   1.4 Neurasthenia
   1.5 Between Nervous Fatigue and Chronic Fatigue: Stress
   1.6 Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
   1.7 Burnout and Modern Society in 2000
   1.8 Conclusion
   References
2. Evolutionary Aspects of Stress (Björn Folkow)
   2.1 Introduction
   2.2 Man’s Situation in a Phylogenetic Perspective
   2.3 From Intuitive Insight to Experimental Documentation
   2.4 Organization of Stress-Induced Response Patterns
   2.5 Implications Concerning Man in Modern Society
   2.6 Concluding Remarks
   References
3. Stress – It Is All in the Brain (Hege Randi Eriksen and Holger Ursin)
   3.1 Background
   3.2 Introduction
   3.3 The Starting Point: Consensus Statements
   3.4 The Alarm: When and Why Does this Alarm Occur
   3.5 CATS: From Words to Formal Logics and Theory
   3.6 Expectancies: What Do Brains Really Do
   3.7 Expectancies: Priorities, Probabilities, and Values
   3.8 Variance in Stress Responses: Stimulus Expectancy
   3.9 Variance in the Stress Responses. Coping: Positive Response Outcome Expectancies
   3.10 Variance in the Stress Responses. Lacking or Negative Response Outcome Expectancies: Helplessness and Hopelessness
   3.11 The Variance in Coping Concepts
   3.12 Covert Coping
   3.13 Outcome Evaluations, Fear, Anxiety and Alarm
   3.14 Access to the Alarm System
   3.15 Stress as an Alarm System: Adaptive or Maladaptive
   3.16 Allostatic Load – Repeated Strong Arousals – Training or Straining
   3.17 Sustained Activation
   3.18 Stress and Disease: Coping and Health
   3.19 Sustained Activation, Sustained Attention and Sensitization
   3.20 Rumination and Sustained Activation
   3.21 Too Much Coping – Being Too Good: the Dangers of Narcissism
   3.22 Social Inequality in Health and in Response Outcome Expectancies
   3.23 Brain Mechanisms
   3.24 Conclusions
   References
   Stress at the Societal and Organizational Level
4. Collective Traumatic Stress: Crisis and Catastrophes (Lars Weisæth)
   4.1 Introduction: The Individual as a Citizen
   4.2 Society’s Denial of Psychic Trauma and its Consequences to Health
   4.3 Central Concepts and Models
   References
5. Stress – Why Managers Should Care (Bengt B. Arnetz)
   5.1 Introduction
   5.2 Stress – An Organizational Perspective
   5.3 Organization – A Biological Entity
   5.4 Drivers of Constant Needs of Organizational Changes
   5.5 Organizational Stressors’ Impact on the Bottom Line
   5.6 Optimal Organizational Stress and Slack
   5.7 Organizational Stress Models – Concepts and De.nitions
   5.8 Organizational Ine.ciency and Organizational Stress
   5.9 Ingredients for Healthy and Productive Work Environments
   5.10 Work, Stress and Productivity
   5.11 Organizational Effectiveness and Perceived Stress
   5.12 Stress Intervention and Implications for Organizational Health and Productivity
   5.13 QWC – Theory, Model and Applicability
   5.14 Multiorganizational Assessments of Organizational and Employee Well-Being
   5.15 Leadership and Employee Job Satisfaction and Organizational Performance
   5.16 Implementation of Productive and Healthy Work Practices
   References
6. The Empowered Organization and Personnel Health (Töres Theorell)
   6.1 Introduction
   6.2 A Historical Perspective
   6.3 Concepts Related to Work Control
   6.4 How to Evaluate Decision Latitude
   6.5 Questionnaires
   6.6 Relationship Between Decision Latitude and Health
   6.7 Decision Latitude and Physiological Reactions
   6.8 What Can Be Done for the Improvement of Decision Latitude
   References
7. Can Health be Subject to Management Control? Suggestions and Experiences (Ulf Johanson and Andreas Backlund)
   7.1 Introduction
   7.2 Health and Pro.tability
   7.3 Health in the Balance Sheet
   7.4 Health in the Pro.t and Loss Account
   7.5 HR Costings
   7.6 Recent Management Control Methods
   7.7 Health Statements
   7.8 Health and Management Control in the Swedbank: A Case Study
   7.9 Conclusion and Dilemmas
   References
   Stress and Brain Plasticity
8. The Neonatal and Pubertal Ontogeny of the Stress Response: Implications for Adult Physiology and Behavior (Russell D. Romeo and Bruce S. McEwen)
   8.1 Introduction
   8.2 Stress, Homeostasis, Allostasis, and Allostatic Load
   8.3 The Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal Axis
   8.4 Neonatal Development of the HPA Axis
   8.5 Early Life Events and the Shaping of the HPA Axis
   8.6 Pubertal Development of the HPA Axis
   8.7 Puberty as a Period of Intervention
   8.8 Implications for Human Health and Development
   8.9 Conclusions and Future Directions
   References
9. Neurobiological and Behavioral Consequences of Exposure to Childhood Traumatic Stress(Martin H. Teicher, Jacqueline A. Samson, Akemi Tomoda, Majed Ashy, and Susan L. Andersen)
   9.1 Introduction
   9.2 Exposure to Stress in Early Life and Stress Response Systems
   9.3 Gene Expression, Myelination, Neural Morphology, Neurogenesis and Synaptogenesis
   9.4 Differential Sensitivity to the Effects of Stress in Various Brain Regions
   9.5 Neuropsychiatric Consequences and Psychopathology
   9.6 Perspectives
   Acknowledgements
   References
10. The Brain in Stress – In.uence of Environment and Lifestyle on Stress-Related Disorders (Rolf Ekman and Bengt B. Arnetz)
    10.1 Background
    10.2 Introduction
    10.3 Relationship Between Chronic Stress and Stress-Related Disorders
    10.4 The HPA Axis Out of Balance – a Link to Depression
    10.5 Stress-Related Mental Disorders and Neurodegenerative Diseases
    10.6 Unhealthy Environments; a Link to PTSD
    10.7 Conclusions and Future Prospects
    References
11. The Healthy Cortisol Response (Tommy Olsson and Robert Sapolsky)
    11.1 Introduction
    11.2 The Hippocampus as a GC Target
    11.3 Glucocorticoids, Stress and Synaptic Plasticity in the Hippocampus
    11.4 Glucocorticoids, Stress and Hippocampal-Dependent Cognition
    11.5 Glucocorticoids, Stress and Neurogenesis
    11.6 Glucocorticoids, Stress and Atrophy of Dendritic Processes
    11.7 Glucocorticoids, Stress and Neurotoxicity
    11.8 Glucocorticoids, Stress and the Endangerment of Hippocampal Neurons
    11.9 Clinical Implications
    11.10 Main Points
    11.11 Future
    References
12. Antistress, Well-Being, Empathy and Social Support (Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg and Maria Petersson)
    12.1 Introduction
    12.2 Brief Overview of the Fight–Flight or Stress and Defense Mechanisms
    12.3 Deduction of Physiology of the Antistress Pattern from the Physiology of Breastfeeding
    12.4 The Chemistry of Oxytocin
    12.5 Effects of Oxytocin
    12.6 Release of Oxytocin in Response to Touch
    12.7 Health and Social Interaction
    References
13. Stress, Sleep and Restitution (Torbjörn Akerstedt)
    13.1 Introduction
    13.2 The Physiological Description of Sleep
    13.3 The Effects of Stress on Sleep
    13.3.1 Human Studies
    13.3.2 Animal Studies on Stress
    13.4 Physiological Processes During Sleep
    13.5 Sleep and Stress Markers
    13.6 Sleep Loss
    13.7 Sleep Loss and Disease
    13.8 Sleep Regulation
    13.9 Final Comment
    References
    Stress and the Individual
14. Brain Mechanisms In Stress and Negative Affect (Mats Fredrikson and Tomas Furmark)
    14.1 Introduction
    14.2 Brain-Imaging Techniques and Paradigms
    14.3 Theories of Emotion and Neuroimaging Applications
    14.4 Dismantling Fear from Disgust: a Theory Test
    14.5 Emotional Activation versus Emotional Control: Activating, Controlling and Modulating Brain Circuits
    14.6 Imaging Stress
    14.7 Relieving Stress: Treatment Studies
    14.8 Genetic In.uences on Stress and Brain Activity
    14.9 Psychosomatic Stress and Emotional Brain Circuits
    References
15. Is It Dangerous To Be Afraid? (Markus Heilig)
    15.1 Introduction
    15.2 Animal Models of Fear’s Behavioral Component
    15.3 Do You Run Because You Are Scared or Are You Scared Because You Run
    15.4 A Sketch of the Organization of Fear
    15.5 The Price of Being Conscious
    15.6 Mediators of Emotions
    15.7 To Stop in Time
    15.8 A Sea Horse that Bolts
    15.9 Can a Vicious Circle Be Broken
    References
16. Fatigue and Recovery (Bengt B. Arnetz and Rolf Ekman)
    16.1 Introduction
    16.2 Fatigue – a Distinct Entity or Part of a Syndrome
    16.3 Fatigue-Dominating Syndromes
    16.4 Fatigue Among the General Population
    16.5 Fatigue, Chronic Fatigue and Chronic Semantic Confusion
    16.6 Assessing Fatigue
    16.7 Stress-Related Fatigue
    16.8 Fatigue Scale Versus Other Scales Assessing Fatigue-Related Conditions
    16.9 Fatigue Development Over Time – Risk Factors and Protective Factors
    References
17. The Role of Stress in the Etiology of Medically Unexplained Syndromes (James Rubin and Simon Wessely)
    17.1 Medically Unexplained Syndromes
    17.2 Evidence for an Association with Psychosocial Stress
    17.3 Possible Mechanisms
    17.4 Implications for Diagnosis
    17.5 Implications for Treatment
    References
18. Oxidative Inflammatory Stress in Obesity and Diabetes (Paresh Dandona, Ahmad Aljada, Ajay Chaudhuri, and Husam Ghanim)
    18.1 Introduction
    18.2 Oxidative Stress
    18.3 Inflammatory Stress
    18.4 Oxidative Stress in Obesity and Diabetes
    18.5 Antioxidant and Antiinflammatory Effect of Insulin
    18.6 Mental Stress and Inflammation
    18.7 Atherogenesis and Insulin
    18.8 The New Paradigm
    18.9 Future Horizons
    References
19. The Metabolic Syndrome (Christian Berne and Per Björntorp)
    19.1 Introduction
    19.2 History
    19.3 Metabolic Syndrome
    19.4 Hormones in Metabolic Syndrome
    19.5 Hypertension
    19.6 Stress Axes
    19.7 Other Conditions
    19.8 Prevention and Therapy
    19.9 Summary
    References
20. Chronic Pain: the Diathesis–Stress Model (Yuan Bo Peng, Perry N. Fuchs, and Robert J. Gatchel)
    20.1 Introduction
    20.2 A Conceptual Model of the Transition from Acute to Chronic Pain and Emotional Distress
    20.3 The Diathesis–Stress Model
    20.4 Summary and Conclusions
    Acknowledgements
    References
21. Emotional Stress, Positive Emotions, and Psychophysiological Coherence (Rollin McCraty and Dana Tomasino)
    21.1 Introduction
    21.2 The Emotional Basis of Stress
    21.3 Breaking the Stress Cycle: The Power of Positive Emotions
    21.4 Positive Emotion-Focused Tools and Techniques
    21.5 The Scienti.c Basis of the HeartMath Techniques
    21.6 Revisiting the HeartMath Techniques: A Repatterning Process
    21.7 Heart Rhythm Coherence Feedback Training: Facilitating Coherence
    21.8 Conclusions and Implications
    Acknowledgements
    Note
    References
22. Stress Systems in Aging – Cognitions and Dementia (Nicole C. Schommer and Isabella Heuser) 22.1 Introduction and Overview
    22.2 Endocrine Systems in the Healthy Elderly
    22.3 Cognitive Function in the Healthy Elderly and Impact of Endocrine Stress Reactivity
    22.4 Stress Systems and Dementia
    22.5 Summary and Conclusion
    References
23. Stress and Addiction (Bo Söderpalm and Anna Söderpalm)
    23.1 Introduction
    23.2 Stress, Alcohol and Nicotine
    23.3 What Are the Biological Underpinnings
    23.4 Stress and Inhibitory Control
    23.5 Stress-Sensitivity and Risk for Excessive Drug Self-Administration
    23.6 Human Studies
    23.7 Summary
    References
    Index