Abstract
The heightened exposure to everyday stressors in recent decades has significantly increased the number of stress response studies. Although stress response has often been associated to negative outcomes, since a number of physical and psychological diseases are triggered by chronic stress exposure, this response is essential to survival and extremely adaptive when activated in an acute manner. In Part I of this review homeostasis, allostasis and the functioning of physiological systems mobilized to cope with stress were examined. In Part II stress response modulators such as sex, temperament, ontogenetically sensitive periods and the presence or absence of social support will be discussed. The interaction between genetic and environmental factors generates the profiles that characterize susceptible and resilient phenotypes, and their relationship with an increasingly common psychopathology in modern society, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
Keywords:
reactivity; temperament; sex; social support; posttraumatic stress disorder