Abstract
Stress is a major problem in present day life. It has been argued over recent years that stress plays a role in the development of illness. Nevertheless, the mechanisms through which stress responses may affect physical and psychosomatic illness are poorly understood. This paper discussed how important stress is, in comparison with other factors that are known to affect illness. How does stress lead to ill-health outcomes? What are the processes linking the experience of stress with physical changes in the body and pathological responses? The present article is to examine the role of biopsychosocial factors in the development of physical and psychosomatic illness according to the stress-coping vulnerability models. The main conclusion to be drawn is that the involvement of two major processes of psychophysiological and cognitive-behavioral pathways mediating ill-health outcomes. Future research must establish these connections more precisely.
