Although intermittent increases in inflammation are critical for survival during physical injury
and infection, recent research has revealed that certain social, environmental and lifestyle …

The discovery of reciprocal connections between the central nervous system, sleep and the
immune system has shown that sleep enhances immune defences and that afferent signals …

Sleep disturbance is the most prominent symptom in depressive patients and was formerly
regarded as a main secondary manifestation of depression. However, many longitudinal …

Depression predisposes to medical illnesses and advances biological aging indicated by
shorter telomere length, accelerated brain aging and advanced epigenetic aging. Medical …

Environmental stressors, such as childhood maltreatment, have been recognized to
contribute to the development of depression. Growing evidence suggests that epigenetic …

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 …

Nearly half of all adults older than 60 years of age report sleep disturbance, as characterised
either by reports of insomnia complaints with daytime consequences, dissatisfaction with …

Volumetric reductions in the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are among
the most well-documented neural abnormalities in major depressive disorder (MDD) …

Stress responses help us navigate our environment and respond appropriately to threats.
Stress systems communicate threats to the entire organism, and as such, also stimulate …

This open access book is a systematic update of the philosophical and scientific foundations
of the biopsychosocial model of health, disease and healthcare. First proposed by George …