The Induction of Acute and Chronic Cardiovascular Disease in Animals by Psychosocial Stimulation

It has been established that sustained emotional arousal can accompany the psychosocial stimulation induced by the social interaction of members of a social group as they compete for desiderata, such as food and water. This paper reviews the evidence that this arousal of neuronendocrine response patterns can, in turn, lead to disease states and to a fatal outcome. Various experimental observations in pigs, monkeys, baboons, tree shrews, and rodents demonstrate both acute and chronic disturbances of cardiovascular function. These conditions can lead to sudden death or to sustained high blood pressure with arteriosclerotic lesions in the heart and blood vessels. It is shown that when social pressure that has been maintained for a sufficiently long period is relieved, the organism does not revert to normal.