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Stress and resilience

Stress can take many forms, from a backlog of e-mails to the trauma of war. And if stress is particularly acute or prolonged, it can damage the mind, triggering conditions from depression to post-traumatic stress disorder. Now researchers are getting to grips with how stress can alter the biology of the brain, and tip a mind into illness. Here, Nature takes a look at what they have learned so far about the impacts of adversity - and the secrets of resilience.

Image credit: Paddy Mills

Opinion

  • Life stresses

    It is time for sociologists and biologists to bury the hatchet and cooperate to study the effects of environmental stress on how people behave.

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  • Too toxic to ignore

    A stark warning about the societal costs of stress comes from links between shortened telomeres, chronic stress and disease, say Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Elissa S. Epel.

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Features

  • The Roots of Resilience

    Most people bounce back from trauma – but some never recover. Scientists are trying to work out what underlies the difference.

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Careers

  • Under a cloud

    Depression is rife among graduate students and postdocs. Universities are working to get them the help they need.

    Nature ( )

Archive