The idea that stress or adversity (major and potentially traumatic events experienced during one's lifetime) affect health and well-being is widely accepted by the public and by many researchers and physicians, the article states. Evidence has accumulated linking exposure to recent stressful events with psychological distress, most typically with depressive symptoms.

R. Jay Turner, Ph.D., and Donald A. Lloyd, Ph.D., of Florida State University, Tallahassee, investigated whether lifetime exposure to adversity was a risk factor for the later onset of depressive and anxiety disorders.

The researchers conducted a 1,803 interviews (between 1998 and 2000) among a sample of individuals aged 18 to 23 years living in a southern Florida community, most of whom participated in another study five to seven years earlier. Participants were interviewed (either in their homes or over the telephone) and were assessed for major depression, dysthymia (a mild, chronic form of depression), generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, panic disorder, alcohol abuse and dependence, drug abuse and dependence, posttraumatic stress disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. Interviewers also asked about specific kinds of stressful events or traumatic incidents over the course of the participants' lifetimes.

The researchers found that the level of lifetime exposure to adversity was associated with an increased risk of developing depressive or anxiety disorders.

The researchers write: "As previously reported, these results indicate that exposure to major and potentially traumatic events is commonplace among young people, at least in South Florida. The typical African American in the sample ha
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Contact: Jill Elish
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JAMA and Archives Journals
3-May-2004