This is just sort of a visual on acute stress response.

So obviously when we perceive a stress, that message goes to the different structures in the central nervous system. And the central nervous system, within the hypothalamus primarily, will produce the hormones CRH and AVP, as I just discussed with you.

And I think one of the things that’s important to point out is that there are a lot of different factors that will affect a person’s stress response because not everything that is perceived as one person as being stressful might be perceived by someone else as being stressful. There are hereditary components … there are developmental factors … they have done studies to show that in utero there are different things that can happen that will affect the future person’s ability to mount a stress response.

But when those chemicals reach the adrenal cortex then you’ll notice that there’s going to be a release of primarily cortisol from the cortex. You get catecholamine production from a different part, but primarily the adrenal medulla releases the epinephrine and the majority of the norepinephrine. And this system is also positively and negatively regulated by different systems as well. So the serotonergic and cholinergic systems tend to positively influence it, and GABA and opiod tend to negatively affect it. And the principle target organs obviously are everywhere because your tissues have receptors, mineralocorticoid receptors and glucocorticoid receptors, everywhere. That’s just a basic overview of the stress response system and the way the body releases hormones.