The effects of stressful life events and trauma on brain structure and subsequent development of psychopathology

压力和创伤事件被认为是许多精神疾病的重要风险因素，然而，很难确定压力如何导致精神病理的机制（McEwen和Stellar， 1993）。先前的研究表明，压力生活事件会影响大脑结构，尤其是海马、前扣带皮层（ACC）和眶额皮质等区域的灰质体积（GMV）减少。从理论上讲，过度暴露于应激激素（如糖皮质激素）会导致树突萎缩、神经发生减少和神经元死亡，从而导致可观察到的GMV减少（Radley和Morrison， 2005）。

Stressful and traumatic events are recognised as important risk factors for a number of psychiatric disorders, however it hasbeen difficult to identify the mechanism of how stress leads to psychopathology (McEwen and Stellar, 1993). Previous work hasdemonstrated that stressful life events affect brain structure, notably observed as reduction in grey matter volume (GMV) withinregions such as the hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and orbitofrontal cortex. It is theorised that an over-exposureto stress hormones such as glucocorticoids results in dendritic atrophy, reduced neurogenesis, and neuronal death, resulting inan observable reduction in GMV (Radley and Morrison, 2005).