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Annotated Bibliography

Vernessa Combs

PSY 101: Introduction to Psychology

August 26, 2019

Annotated Bibliography: Ulcers are Caused by Stress

Everyone undergoes stress at some point in their lives. Researchers have studied the relationship between stress and ulcers. Some of the researchers have argued that stress causes the ability of the body to protect itself from diseases to decrease, therefore, stressful people are susceptible to diseases. This paper will examine the views of various researchers about the relationship between stress and ulcers.

In the past, researchers have differed on whether stress causes ulcers. The initial researchers to identify the bacteria that causes stress ruled out the possibility of stress-causing ulcers. However, other researchers later came to establish that stress causes ulcers.

Salleh, M. R. (2008). Life event, stress, and illness. The Malaysian journal of medical sciences: MJMS, 15(4), 9.

This article analyzes the relationship between stress and illnesses. It explains that short-term stress boosts the immune system, but long-term stress or chronic stress weakens it. Stress suppresses the immune system by raising catecholamine. The effects of stress on the stomach is that it alters acid concentration in it, and this causes peptic or stress ulcers. Salleh also argues that stress could be caused by factors such as personality types, coping style, and genetic vulnerability.

The relevance of this peer-reviewed article to the research question is that it explains the relationship between stress and ulcers. Salleh argues that stress causes ulcers by weakening the immune system. When the immune system is weak, the body is unable to fight against the bacteria that causes stress. Alteration of acids in the stomach are also caused by stress, and this causes ulcers. The strengths of this article are adequately explaining how stress causes ulcers as it argues that stress lowers the immune system. Its weaknesses are the provision of two contradicting statements about stress. This is because at some point it explains how short-term stress increases immunity, therefore reducing stress. Overall, it is a great article to examine the relationship between stress and ulcers.

Tandon, R., Khanna, R. D., Dorababu, M., & Goel, R. K. (2014). Oxidative stress and antioxidants status in peptic ulcer and gastric carcinoma. Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 48(1), 115-118.

This article examines the causes of peptic ulcers in rats. It explains that oxidative stress causes peptic ulcers and also gastric carcinoma. The researchers observed an increase in rat gastric mucosal lipid peroxidation and superoxide dismutase and a decrease in catalase levels in cold restraint stress-induced gastric ulceration (Tandon et al, 2014). They have also explained the role of antioxidants in protecting gastric ulcers. The results of the study indicated a correlation between oxidative stress and duodenal ulcers.

The authors are professionals in the relevant field and it is peer-reviewed. It supports the argument that ulcers are caused by stress. This is because it analyzes the causes of peptic ulcers and concludes that oxidative stress causes the peptic ulcers. The analysis is done by inducing cold-restraint stress in rats. The strengths of this article include the fact that results are presented clearly. Its weakness is that it does not explain the relationship between oxidative stress and ulcers in humans. However, it makes a good explanation of the causes of ulcers in rats, and this may be used to explain the causes of stress in humans.

Wlaschek, M., & Scharffetter‐Kochanek, K. (2015). Oxidative stress in chronic venous leg ulcers. Wound Repair and Regeneration, 13(5), 452-461.

The article studies the causes of venous leg ulcers. It specifically outlines the role that oxidative stress plays in non-healing of the chronic ulcers. It explains that oxidative stress causes a homeostasis imbalance which makes it hard for the venous leg ulcers to heal. Macrophages and neutrophils release most of the oxygen species. The article relates to the topic chosen in that it explains the role of ulcers in causing stress.

The causes of venous leg ulcers have been analyzed extensively in the article. The only weakness is that the relationship between oxidative stress and venous leg ulcers is not clear in the article. However, it is a useful resource scholarly resource written by professionals to examine oxidative stress in chronic leg ulcers.

Brady, J. V. (2018). Ulcers in" executive" monkeys. Scientific American, 199(4), 95-103.

Monkeys were put in a laboratory and subjected to psychological stress. The monkeys were trained in restraining chains and received an electric shock at various intervals. Emotional stress caused ulcers in the monkeys. The researchers argued that emotional stress could affect all body organs, but the gastrointestinal tract is usually the most vulnerable.

The strengths of this article were providing a good explanation of how stress causes ulcers. The researchers stated that emotional stress increased the flow of acids into the stomach. It also documented well the connection between ulcers, stomach acids, and emotional stress. The article was, therefore, efficient in analyzing the causes of stress. The author, Joseph Brady is a researcher in causes of stomach ulcers and a professor.

Jones, M. P. (2016). The role of psychosocial factors in peptic ulcer disease: beyond Helicobacter pylori and NSAIDs. Journal of psychosomatic research, 60(4), 407-412.

Various psychological factors cause ulcers. Although the Helicobacter pylori have been named as the bacteria which causes ulcers, psychological stress plays an important role in causing the enhancement of ulcers. This article explains that psychological factors lead to ulcer formation.

The strengths of this article include explaining the causes of ulcers. However, it does not explicitly explain how psychological stress causes ulcer formation as in other articles. Michael Jones, however, agrees with the fact that stress causes ulcers. He is a professor at Northwestern University, Chicago.

SUMMARY

Research agrees that ulcers are caused by stress. This is because it lowers the body's immunity to bacteria that causes ulcers. These bacteria, therefore, bring about ulcers in the gastric tract and the stomach. Additional questions in this research question are whether it is the stress that causes ulcers or it is the bacteria. The problems encountered are searching for scholarly sources which address the issue of stress and ulcers.