The Neurobiology of Social Adversity and Disparity: Analyzing Social-Stress and Health Inequities

TL;DR

This paper explores how social stress and inequality affect health, especially in marginalized communities, by disrupting brain and body stress systems.

Contribution

It highlights how neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms contribute to health disparities in historically marginalized populations.

Findings

Social stress is linked to dysregulation in neurochemical pathways, leading to health issues like anxiety and cardiovascular disease.

Marginalized communities, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, experience exacerbated health outcomes due to social adversity.

The study identifies how environmental and social inequities impact long-term health through neurobiological mechanisms.

Abstract

Social stress, stemming from institutional and interpersonal hardships, has been shown to diminish long-term health and increase mortality. These adverse health outcomes are strongly linked to dysregulation in neurochemical stress pathways and can include anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and immune deficiency. As exposure to such adversity is often manifested in social inequities, the focus of this analysis, aims to examine how this harm is further exacerbated within historically marginalized populations especially amongst racial and ethnic minorities. This study explores the neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms underlying the effects of social and environmental inequities on long-term health in disenfranchised communities.