Psychosocial stress and health problems: Health in Sweden: The National Public Health Report 2012. Chapter 6

• Published in: Scandinavian journal of public health 2012-12, Vol.40 (9_suppl), p.121-134
• Main Authors: Danielsson, Maria, Heimerson, Inger, Lundberg, Ulf, Perski, Aleksander, Stefansson, Claes-Göran, Åkerstedt, Torbjörn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Chronic fatigue syndrome; Chronic pain; Complaints; Employment - psychology; Employment - statistics & numerical data; Evaluation; Female; gender differences; Health care; Humans; Male; Mental Disorders - epidemiology; Mental health; Mental stress; Middle Aged; Pain - etiology; Psychology; Psychosocial factors; psychosocial health; Psychosociology; Psykologi; Public health; Public Health - statistics & numerical data; SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP; Sleep; SOCIAL SCIENCES; Socialvetenskap; Stress; Stress, Psychological - complications; Sweden; Sweden - epidemiology; Trend reports; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1403-4948; 1651-1905; 1651-1905
• DOI: 10.1177/1403494812459469

Stress can be defined as an imbalance between demands placed on us and our ability to manage them. The body's stress system is adapted to confront sudden physical threats. Today, however, we are increasingly exposed to prolonged mental and psychosocial stress. Prolonged stress can give rise to a range of problems: poor performance, chronic fatigue, disinterest, dejection, memory disturbances, sleep problems, numbness and diffuse muscle pains. These symptoms may eventually be followed by depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic fatigue syndrome, and ultimately chronic pain conditions, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Sleep is a vital counterbalance to stress as it enables the body to recover properly. Good sleep is thus essential to our ability to cope with stress and stay healthy. The decline in the mental wellbeing of the population since the 1980s has been accompanied by a rise in the number of pain complaints. A similar development in respect of symptoms such as anxiousness, nervousness and anxiety, constant fatigue and neck and shoulder pain and sleeping problems has been observed in the population. This increase, which continued throughout the 1990s and culminated in 2001, was followed by a slight fall. However, there was no decline among young people in the early 2000s. Rather, the number of complaints continued to increase. Adapted from the source document.