Social support and resilience to stress across the life span: A neurobiologic framework

Abstract

This review discusses selected neurobiologic and genetic factors-including noradrenergic and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis markers, oxytocin pathways, and serotonin transporter and brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene polymorphisms-in the context of resilience to stress, with an emphasis on social support. Social support's impact on medical and psychiatric health outcomes is reviewed, and putative mediators are discussed. The reviewed literature indicates that social support is exceptionally important to maintaining good physical and psychological health in the presence of genetic, developmental, and other environmental risks. Future studies should continue to explore the neurobiologic factors associated with social support's contribution to stress resilience.

The Influence of Perceived Social Support and Self-Efficacy on Resilience among First Year Malaysian Students

“…Perceived social support makes a person more resilient in times of stress and prevents a psychopathology from developing (Ozbay et al, 2007). It also equips an individual with the necessary resources to cope with a crisis (Chi et al, 2011).…”

Estresse do Estudante de Medicina e Rendimento Acadêmico

“…Tal fato é corroborado pela alta prevalência de estresse entre estudantes adultos jovens 19 . Estudantes que não moram com a família, por sua vez, podem ter um nível mais elevado de estresse e outros tipos de sofrimento mental, pois o suporte social é apontado como crucial para a manutenção da saúde mental 20,21 .…”

Individual Stress Vulnerability Is Predicted by Short-Term Memory and AMPA Receptor Subunit Ratio in the Hippocampus

“…Chronic stress is one of the major risk factors for MDD (Wang, 2005), but it is still unclear why some individuals are highly vulnerable to stress exposure, while others show a remarkable level of resilience (Ozbay et al, 2008). Using a recently developed paradigm for individual stress vulnerability (Schmidt et al, 2009), here we tested the hypothesis of a causal involvement of AMPA receptors in stress vulnerability by combining evidence from genetic, pharmacological, and behavioral levels.…”