Sex stress emotional disorders: uniting preclinical and epidemiologic research

Duke University, Durham NC

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Advancing Novel Science in Women's Health Research (ANSWHR) We propose (1) to bring together researchers who have made important advances in preclinical, experimental, and epidemiological research on stress responsivity and psychopathology;(2) to integrate their findings across disciplines and identify key questions related to gender disparities;and (3) to plan a new program of research that takes a developmental approach to sex differences in stress responsivity as they affect depression and anxiety disorders in young people. The program of work has three aspects: (1) Two annual meetings of the workgroup members to identify key questions and plan a program of analysis of existing data sets. Meetings will be designed so that participants will learn as well as teach. At the second meeting, each work group member to commit to be first author on one or more specific papers. (2) A program of data analysis to be carried out at the Center for Developmental Epidemiology, Duke University. Analyses will be reported to the group by email;group members can request additional follow-up analyses. Monthly conference calls between meetings will discuss output of analyses and plan further work. (3) An application for an Interdisciplinary Developmental Science Center for Mental Health (IDSC) or similar mechanism, to be submitted in October 2010. Questions to be addressed include the following: 1. What has been learned from animal research about sex differences in the effects of early adversity on neurobiological parameters, such as the HPA axis, the autonomic nervous system, and neural systems implicated in psychopathology? 2. What has been learned from laboratory and epidemiological research with humans about sex differences in the effects of early adversity on neurobiological parameters, such as the HPA axis, the autonomic nervous system, and neural systems implicated in anxiety and depression in the first decades of life? 3. Where do these bodies of work agree, where do they conflict, and where are they most important gaps? We expect that the answers to questions 1 to 3 will lead to the planning of a Center application to focus on such questions as: 4. How does gender moderate the effects of childhood stress on mental health and neurobiological function;i.e., what are the interactions between stress response systems and sex steroids? 5. What are the sex-specific effects of stress and life events in different developmental stages or during transitions between stages (e.g., puberty) on risk for anxiety and depression? 6. How does the timing of differences in onset of anxiety and depression in males and females relate to sex differences in psychological and neurobiological functioning? PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Many psychiatric disorders occur more often in women than in men. Some have argued that this is because women suffer from a greater number of stressful events, or respond differently to stressors in their lives. This workgroup of world leaders in stress research will bring together the preclinical, experimental, and epidemiological evidence on stress, gender, and depression and anxiety disorders and plan a program of integrated research on gender disparities in the role played by stress in mental illness.