Literature Review Of Stress

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3 Review of literature

3.1. Stress Model and stressor The term stress typically refers to an internal or external (environmental) event that disrupts normal homeostasis. Stressful events always evoke an extensive multi-system and highly integrative physiological response (Kopin et al, 1995 and Goldstein et al, 2007). There exist sex- and age-dependent variations among individuals in response to various stressors and other exogenous stimuli as determined using a wide range of biochemical and physiological endpoints (Smith and Vale et al, 2006). Stress-induced events are complex phenomena involves a galaxy of factors. Laboratory animals have been indispensable in their roles as models in the study of stress, and consequently explore the understanding of what stress is about. A large body of literature has centered on examining the effects of acute and chronic stress. The stress response following a stressor includes the activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The SNS is responsible for the acute stress response, involving the release of catecholamines (epinephrine and norephinephrine) within seconds of the onset of the stressor. The HPA axis is responsible for the chronic stress response, within several minutes of stressor onset involving the release of glucocorticoids. It is found that the glucocorticoid secreted in humans is cortisol and in rodents corticosterone

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