Overview of Stress: Insights from the Stress System, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Recent Approaches

Stress is an excessive, improper, or exaggerated response to a circumstance. Stress is a common occurrence in a rapidly expanding global population, with most people experiencing stress as a result of daily issues such as financial problems, family problems, educational problems, and so on. Despite the fact that the entire CNS has a direct or indirect function in maintaining general body homeostasis, several regions of the brain play crucial, unique roles in coordinating the stress response. The stress system plays a major role here via two different pathways, i.e., the HPA axis pathway and the sympatho-adreno-medulary (SAM) axis pathway. These two pathways work in response to stress by releasing different neurotransmitters in the brain and managing stress with positive and negative feedback mechanisms. This long-term exposure to chronic stress increases the chances of developing stress-related disorders like PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disabling condition that often arises after exposure to a stressful event and affects around 8% of the population during their lifetime. To date, there is no effective treatment available for PSTD other than some antidepressants. Recently Ketamine has gained popularity in recent PSTD approaches as a good candidate for treating PTSD. In this review, we focus on the entire stress system, its treatments, and recent approaches.