THE NEWBORN AND INFANT DEATH FALL: ARE WE PAYING FOR IT BY THE LOWERING
OF STRESS THRESHOLDS?
By Renato Cocchi, MD.
I think we did non pay any attention to a particular link between the newborn and
infant death fall and possible lowering of stress thresholds.
This link
needs to bear in mind some variables into play.
The more
important variables are:
-
Progress in obstetrics;
-
Progress in newborn intensive care;
-
Availability of antibiotics.
Progress
in obstetrics and progress in newborn intensive care have let us to save many
lives. Nevertheless this fact has its counterpart in the fall of newborn and
infant death that results in developed countries.
The
babies so saved are also full healthy or halfway healthy? Most of them have
Upper Respiratory Tract Infections easiness since their first year of live.
This is a
signal of reduced immunity competence, probably linked to a continual condition
of stress, with cortisol incretion or its receptors
sensitivity and reduced cell-mediated immunity.
Following
Sapolsky studies, we know that a heavy stress can
disturb the hippocampus-corticosuprarenal feedback
for corticosteroids, so lowering the stress thresholds.
In the
pre-sulphamidic and antibiotic era, most of these
infants did not survive to recurrent bronco-pneumonitis,
as did Down syndrome children.
Now we
can fight this reduced immunity in early years of life by the massive use of
antibiotics. As the child grows, usually he has this easiness reduced.
What
about the impaired hippocampus-corticosuprarenal
feedback? Are these children more sensitive than the others? Could they start
their psychological life with a disability? Are these children more prone to
depression and other psychiatric disorders, both in childhood and adolescent
age, or early adulthood?
Finally,
can the hippocampus-corticosuprarenal impairment be
corrected in early infancy?