This viewpoint article describes the brain as a central organ responding to stress, which is vulnerable but also resilient. It receives information not only from the outside world but also reciprocally with the rest of the body. The article explains the concepts of allostasis and allostatic loads as they epigenetically affect neural and systemic processes over the lifecourse. McEwen explains how the brain and body influence each other during the course of psychiatric disorders with frequent multimorbidity – a point the author thinks needs more emphasis in the Research Domain Criteria matrix.
McEwen Bruce S.: Allostasis and the Epigenetics of Brain and Body Health over the Life Course – The Brain on Stress. JAMA Psychiatry 74(6):551-552 (2017).
