Chronic Stress and Health

Chronic stress has long been identified as a determinant of adverse health outcomes. Chronic stress can have many different causes, such as work overload or unemployment, or caring for a family member with chronic illness, to name a few. While many potential mechanisms linking chronic stress with disease have been investigated, many pieces of stress-disease puzzle remain unknown. Here we focus on chronic low-grade inflammation as a pathway linking stress with disease, and we study specifically the psychological and biological determinants of inflammatory disinhibition.

Projects:

PFCS: Protective Factors in chronically stressed Caregivers

Chronischer Stress hat viele negative Konsequenzen. Eine der gravierendsten jedoch besteht in der erhöhten Entzündungsaktivität, die auf chronischen Stress erfolgen kann. Diese Entzündungsprozesse spielen deshalb eine so entscheidende Rolle, da sie wiederum Krankheiten bedingen, die nicht selten zu einer Verringerung der Lebenserwartung führen. Folglich ist es von enormer Bedeutung, Faktoren zu ermitteln, die vor der stressbedingten Erhöhung der Entzündungsparameter und so-mit vor ernsten Krankh…

More information

STING: German Translation and Evaluation of the Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN)

Cooperating with Prof. George Slavich at the University of California we translated the Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN) into german.  STRAIN is an online tool that assesses a person’s exposure to stress over the life course. Differentiating between acute and chronic events it measures frequency, severity and duration of each event. Completing the inventory with more than 200 items takes around 30 minutes.…

More information

IMMUNE: Immune against stress? - Validation of the German version of the STRAIN

In further collaboration with Prof. George Slavich (UCLA) we continue our validation of the German version of  the Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN) with parameters of the cardiovascular- and immune system.

STRAIN is an online tool that assesses a person’s exposure to stress over the life course. Differentiating between acute and chronic events, it measures frequency, severity, and duration of each…

More information

FEARFALL: FEARFALL: Chronic stress level and functional health in older adults: the impact and role of fear of falling

Maintenance of physical function, mobility and ability to live independently are important goals for older persons. However, this is counteracted by age-related loss of muscle mass, strength and function. Furthermore, this degenerating process can be reinforced if the older person avoids physical activity and exercise due to fear of falling. We established that fall-related psychological concerns (FrPC) are not only leading to decreased physical activity, but are also associated with elevated levels…

More information

Contact Persons:

Participating Scientists:

Publications: