How is health psychology a union between medicine and psychology? Is there
any universal solution for effective stress coping? How would you help people to
deal with and avoid stress in their everyday lives?
Answers
Answer:
Purpose: According to the World Health Organization, stress is a significant problem of our times and affects both physical as well as the mental health of people. Stress is defined as a situation where the organism‘s homeostasis is threatened or the organism perceives a situation as threatening. Stress coping methods are the cognitive, behavioral and psychological efforts to deal with stress. Method: After a thorough literature review in major databases (MEDLINE, Scopus, Science Direct) the following techniques were identified and are presented and briefly discussed here: progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, relaxation response, biofeedback, emotional freedom technique, guided imagery, diaphragmatic breathing, transcendental meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction and emotional freedom technique. Conclusion: These are all evidence-based techniques, easy to learn and practice, with good results in individuals with good health or with a disease.
Keywords
stress, stress management techniques, evidence based techniques
Introduction
Life exists through the maintenance of a complex dynamic equilibrium, termed homeostasis, that is constantly challenged by internal or external adverse forces, termed stressors, which can be emotional or physical in nature. Thus, stress is defined as a state of threatened or perceived by the individual as threatened homeostasis and it is re-established by a complex repertoire of behavioural and physiologic adaptive responses of the organism [1] . Neuroendocrinic hormones have a crucial role in coordinating basic as well as threatened homeostasis; also, they intervene in pathogenesis of dyshomeostatic or cacostatic situations of disease [1].
The Stress System located both in the central and peripheral nervous system, generically activated whenever a threshold of any stressor is exceeded, plays a major coordinator role in the re-establishment of homeostasis by eliciting a complex behavioral and physical adaptive response. This response is defined as the stress syndrome and represents the unfolding of a relatively stereotypic, innate program of the organism that has evolved to coordinate homeostasis and protect the individual during stress [1].
Stress, health and illness
According to the World Health Organization [2] stress, especially that relating to work, is the second most frequent health problem, impacting one third of employed people in the European Union.
There is a substantial body of research connecting stress to cardiovascular disease [3] , the future manifestation of hypertension related to the individual‘s response to stress [4] , metabolic syndrome [5] , obesity [6] , emotional overeating [7] , while stress fuels approximately 50% of depression cases through disturbance of the HPA axis [8] and increased cortisol levels.
Furthermore, biological markers associate the immunoendocrinological disturbance brought by stress to infertility [9] . There are also research data pin pointing the role of stress in infectious disease [10] and cancer [11] . Given the negative impact of stress at intrapersonal and somatic level, it is important for healthcare professionals to master a repertoire of stress management techniques and teach them to their patients.
It should be noted that stress management techniques are applicable not only to people who manifest a disease or disorder, but also to healthy people, when added to daily routine practice as an effective tool for health enhancement and protection over the life span, serving thus as a valuable intervention for the ―healthy population‖ as well. Health promotion, as one of the main approaches to health enhancement, can serve this multiple role by designing and applying interventions to reduce or prevent distress and adequately contribute to future health and wellness.