Abstract Research findings provide compelling evidence that stress negatively impacts the course of many mental, somatic, and neurological conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of prior psycho-emotional stress on neuroendocrine and autonomic regulation at rest and under mental stress in patients with nonpsychotic mental disorders (NPMD). The main group consisted of 53 patients with NPMD (39 women, 14 men) who had experienced significant stressful events in the year prior to hospitalization. The comparison group included 36 patients with NPMD without significant stressful events during the specified period (29 women and 7 men). The control group consisted of 27 healthy volunteers of similar age and gender. The results of a comparative analysis of the three groups: patients with NPMD, patients with NPMD who had experienced stressful events prior to hospitalization, and healthy subjects revealed different directions of neuroendocrine and autonomic adaptation mechanisms depending on the clinical status. According to the data obtained, episodic or chronic stress in people with NPMD leads to depletion of the neurohormonal and parasympathetic regulatory components, accompanied by increased sympathetic tone. This condition increases the risk of worsening the existing disease and developing vascular and other somatic pathologies, which should be taken into account when developing preventive and treatment strategies for this patient population.
Druzhkova et al. (Sun,) studied this question.