Effects of Stress and Psychological Trauma on the Development and Progression of Cardiovascular Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

As many of you already know, it is well-established that stress and psychological trauma increase the risk of development of cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, stress cardiomyopathy, and the so-called ‘metabolic syndrome’.

Psychological stress and the subsequent development of mental disorders are becoming increasingly important to our society. However, the pathophysiology and/or mediator systems that link stress and/or psychological trauma to the development of cardiovascular disease remain only partly understood. Over the past few years, a number of multi-center studies and epidemiological data on the topic have emerged, demonstrating that the amount and accumulation of allostatic load and the activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary and/or catecholaminergic axes are important issues. Other (patho)-physiological pathways and biological mediator systems have been identified that also represent major areas of current research activity. This is reflected, for example, by the recent EU ERC Consolidator Grant “Major Depression as a Metabolic Disorder: The Role of Oxygen Homeostasis and Mitochondrial Bioenergetics in Depression Etiology and Therapy”.

Nevertheless, much remains to be learned about the biological mediators that relate psychological stress and or trauma to the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases. With this Special Issue, we hope to encourage submissions that discuss the state-of-the-art, fill existing knowledge gaps, and focus on ongoing controversies related to the interaction of stress and psychological trauma with the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases.

Prof. Dr. Christiane Waller
Prof. Dr. Peter Radermacher
Guest Editors

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