The Yale Stress Center presents
“The Science of Stress - Focus on the Brain, Breaking Bad Habits,
and Chronic Disease”
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Harkness Auditorium at the Yale School of Medicine

Stress is a common and frequent aspect of society today. There are significant individual differences in how humans manage stress and stress is known to play a key role in the pathophysiology of many major complex and chronic diseases. Research shows that stress is a major factor in the development of heart disease, obesity and metabolic syndrome, diabetes, infectious diseases, GI disorders and some types of cancers. Maladaptive behaviors such as nicotine, excessive alcohol use and overeating of high
calorie “comfort” foods to manage stress are very common, and costs to society exceed 600 billion dollar in poor health outcomes. There appears to be overlapping stress mechanisms that promote these behaviors and perpetuate negative outcomes in heart disease, diabetes, psychiatric disorders and certain types of cancers. This conference will focus on new advances in stress neurobiological research that show how chronic
stress and adversity get “under the skin” in adolescents and adults via changes in brain chemistry, brain volume, and function. These neural mechanisms interact with physiological processes to increase risk of chronic disease. Research from basic science and clinical studies will show the development of new therapeutic targets that rescue adverse stress-related neurobehavioral sequelae and thereby decrease craving and consumption of nicotine, excessive alcohol and high calorie foods. Success of lifestyle interventions to improve chronic disease will also be presented. Panel discussions to promote audience participation will be included to generate thoughtful and lively discussion of development of social and community interventions to prevent stress effects on addictive behavior and chronic disease risk.

Participants who attend this conference will be able to:

• Identify specific cellular, molecular and neural changes relating to chronic stress and adversity and to addictive behaviors
• Identify the psychosocial and biological mechanisms that perpetuate addictive behaviors of smoking, excessive alcohol use and overconsumption of high calorie foods
• Evaluate new therapeutic targets that rescue adverse stress-related neurobehavioral sequelae, and improve bad habits and poor lifestyle choices
• Analyze latest empirically validated behavioral lifestyle interventions that improve chronic disease outcomes
• Evaluate the effectiveness of social interventions to present stress and addictive habits in adolescent and adults

To register and view the conference program, please visit
http://cme.yale.edu/conferences/conference_index.asp?ID=567