NCJ Number
214945
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Dated: July-August 2006 Pages: 394-413
Date Published
July 2006
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the research on how aggressive behavior within social relationships influences different stress responses in subjects, which in turn leads to the development of different psychopathologies.
Abstract
The main argument is that situations of social stress induced by feelings of subordination or defeat may produce a decrease in corticosteroid levels and an increase in anxiety or depression symptoms in some individuals. Research has suggested that positive social interactions such as those based on support and similar behaviors may reduce the negative effects of social stress through the release of oxytocin. Research with animals has shown how different species organize themselves in relations of dominance and subordination that are maintained through aggressive behaviors. This dominant/subordinate relationship and its co-occurring aggression may produce different responses to stress, which in turn are related to the development of different psychopathologies. Research with animals involving situations of social stress have illustrated how social defeat or subordination can provoke neuroendocrine changes and cause a chronic negative emotional state similar to anxiety or depression in humans. Specific findings related to neurological and biological changes caused by subordinate/dominant relations are offered, such as the finding of chronic activation of the HPA axis with high levels of plasmatic corticosterone. Antidepressant drugs have been shown to reverse both the physiological and behavioral alterations caused by the stress-inducing subordinate/dominant social relations. Research indicates the some dominant subjects also experience a negative response to social stress in the form of the development of mania or anxiety. References