Cited by 531Stress Responses and CortisolResilience and Mental HealthHealth disparities and outcomes

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Ten Surprising Facts About Stressful Life Events and Disease Risk

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Cohen, Sheldon, Murphy, Michael L.M., Prather, Aric A.·2019·Annual Review of Psychology

DOI 10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-102857PMC PMC6996482

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Abstract

After over 70 years of research on the association between stressful life events and health, it is generally accepted that we have a good understanding of the role of stressors in disease risk. In this review, we highlight that knowledge but also emphasize misunderstandings and weaknesses in this literature with the hope of triggering further theoretical and empirical development. We organize this review in a somewhat provocative manner, with each section focusing on an important issue in the literature where we feel that there has been some misunderstanding of the evidence and its implications. Issues that we address include the definition of a stressful event, characteristics of diseases that are impacted by events, differences in the effects of chronic and acute events, the cumulative effects of events, differences in events across the life course, differences in events for men and women, resilience to events, and methodological challenges in the literature.

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See all 531

Authors: Cohen, S., Murphy, M. L. M., & Prather, A. A.
Affiliations: Carnegie Mellon University (US)
University of California, San Francisco (US)
ORCID: Cohen, Sheldon
Murphy, Michael L.M.
Prather, Aric A.
Venue: Annual Review of Psychology
Publisher: Annual Reviews
Published: 2019-01-04
Volume: 70
Issue: 1
Pages: 577-597
ISSN: 0066-4308 (ISSN-L)
1545-2085
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-102857
PMC: PMC6996482
OpenAlex: W2811485232
Cited by: 531
References: 124
Citations by year: 2026: 58 · 2025: 82 · 2024: 82 · 2023: 92 · 2022: 88 · 2021: 74 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 18
FWCI: 3.57
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: bronze
doi.org
Locations: Annual Review of Psychology (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders: National Institute on Aging (R24AG048024)
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (R01AT006694)
Topics: Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Resilience and Mental Health
Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
Keywords: life events, disease risk, chronic stress, acute stress, cumulative stress, life course, sex differences, resilience, methodological issues, health effects of stress
MeSH terms: Cardiovascular Diseases, Communicable Diseases, Depressive Disorder, Humans, Life Change Events, Neoplasms, Stress, Psychological

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