The Immune System

Traumatic Experiences, Perceived Discrimination, and Psychological Distress Among Members of Various Socially Marginalized Groups

“…As organizations move toward policies of cultural safety, as well as programs and practices that are trauma-informed, there is a pressing need to understand the nature of the links between the traumatic experiences and discrimination among members of socially marginalized groups, including the specificities associated with each of the groups. While a sensitization model has played a dominant role in understanding how prior traumatic experiences can exacerbate reactions to subsequent stressor exposures, such that sometimes relatively innocuous stressors appear to trigger psychological disorders such as depression or PTSD (Anisman et al, 2003, 2018), such interactive effects were not consistently evident across the groups examined in the present study. Alongside a call for personalized treatments for mental illnesses, consideration of cultural and social contexts in which individuals are embedded may be critical to the success of such approaches.…”

“…These features might contribute to differences in how group members react to traumatic events and discrimination. Analyses of the responses of such disparate groups facilitate the identification of both common and unique underlying processes by which trauma history and perceived discrimination are associated with vulnerability to psychological distress, particularly as members of each of these groups are known to be differentially at risk for stress-related disorders (Anisman et al, 2018). The hypotheses that we assessed within each group were whether:…”

Resilience: Safety in the Aftermath of Traumatic Stressor Experiences

“…Moreover, even when an individual appears to be resilient in the face of a stressor owing to a specific neurobiological process, this does not necessarily imply that this will hold in the long run. For example, short term inflammatory changes might be adaptive under certain conditions, but if these persist for extended periods, they may have multiple adverse actions, promoting depression, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease (Mastorci et al, 2009 ; Anisman et al, 2018 ; Burgueño et al, 2020 ). By the same token, some behavioral coping strategies (e.g., avoidant coping) might be effective in the short term but could potentially undermine the adoption of strategies (e.g., obtaining help) that are needed to contend effectively with the stressor in the longer term.…”

“…With this said, it should be asked whether there are general features of individuals or particular experiences that favor resilience? For example, it has frequently been maintained that positive and nurturing early life experiences may act in this capacity by affecting neuronal plasticity or changes in gut microbiota (Kentner et al, 2019 ), and might even prime biological systems such that later challenges will be met by moderate neurochemical changes that enhance coping abilities (Anisman et al, 2018 ). At the same time, encountering stressful events that are experienced as tolerable could potentially facilitate learning how to appraise and cope with subsequently encountered challenges (McEwen, 2020 ).…”

“…Research concerning the impacts of stressors has long focused on determining underlying biopsychosocial processes and how these might give rise to various psychological and physical pathologies. Numerous experiential and individual difference factors (e.g., gender, ethnoracial status, age, earlier stressor encounters) that could exacerbate or diminish the actions of stressors have been established (Anisman et al, 2018 ). Likewise, genetic and epigenetic factors that code for particular biological features (e.g., processes related to glucocorticoid or neurotrophin functioning) are tied to the occurrence of behavioral and physical disturbances (Suri et al, 2013 ; Szyf et al, 2016 ; Mehta et al, 2020 ), and glucocorticoids influence epigenetic responses to stress (Reul et al, 2014 ).…”