Advances in Understanding the Impact of Stressful Life Events on Health

Throughout history, philosophers have debated the interaction of mind and body, but only in the last decade have psychiatrists and other health professionals begun to scrutinize how stressful life events may precipitate or contribute to the onset of illness. While traumatic experiences can profoundly affect physical and psychological well-being, their impact may be mediated by factors such as body chemistry and personality traits, which may predispose an individual to greater resilience or greater vulnerability to life stresses. This review covers research exploring the relationship between life stresses and illness, particularly the eating disorders and myocardial infarction, and describes efforts to develop objective instruments to assess the degree of stress associated with specific life events, a task known as life-events scaling. Avenues for future research are recommended.