Stress and Trauma

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Stress is a reaction to life events that trigger change. Trauma is the experience of severe negative stress, and can be induced by many different experiences, including the loss of a home or relationship or a threat to physical safety. Chronic stress and trauma both increase the risk of many health problems, ranging from psychiatric disorders to cardiovascular problems and inflammatory conditions. It also worsens the symptoms of these disorders. Despite the clear links between chronic stress and disease, we are still learning why the effects of stress and trauma are so persistent, and why some individuals, but not others, are adversely affected by stress or trauma. Our scientists at The Friedman Brain Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai are working to discover how stress produces long-lasting changes in the body and leverage this information to develop new strategies for preventing and treating disease.

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Areas of Research and Clinical Focus

Most people experience some form of trauma over the course of their life, yet not everyone develops stress-associated disease. Other stressed individuals develop multiple health problems. At Icahn Mount Sinai, we study the biological underpinnings of this stress resilience and susceptibility. Developing novel therapies to promote resilience, especially in stress-susceptible individuals, is a promising way to reduce stress-associated disease burden.

Scientists in this research area include:

Because the effects of stress affect nearly every system in the body, it is likely that hormones carried to the brain and body in the blood mediate many stress-induced changes. We work to understand how hormones, including acyl-ghrelin, neuropeptide Y, and cortisol, are changed by chronic stress, and to link these changes to dysregulation of different biological systems.

Scientists in this research area include:

Posttraumatic stress disorder and anxiety are two conditions that are commonly triggered by stress. It is likely that stress induces these disorders by dysregulating the neural circuits that process unpleasant experiences. We study these circuits in both animals and humans using the latest approaches, including in vivo calcium imaging of single cells and whole-brain imaging.

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Stress can trigger and worsen autoimmune diseases, as well as driving metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Our scientists at The Friedman Brain Institute seek to understand the brain changes that contribute to these diseases, as well as how the feedback drives changes in the brain.

Scientists in this research area include:

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