{"id":154967,"date":"2023-01-27T02:59:59","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T02:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/?post_type=science_divulgation&p=154967"},"modified":"2023-01-27T02:59:59","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T02:59:59","slug":"academic-stress","status":"publish","type":"sciencecommunication","link":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/science-communication\/academic-stress\/","title":{"rendered":"Academic stress: inducing atopic dermatitis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Shelsya Merany L\u00f3pez, Jacqueline Castillo, and Enrique Guerrero<\/strong>*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t take life too seriously. You\u2019ll never get out of it alive,\u201d wrote Elbert Hubbard in his book A Thousand & One Epigrams: Selected from the Writings of Elbert Hubbard<\/em> (1911). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the truth of this phrase, many people through the ages have suffered from what physician Hans Selye coined \u201cGeneral Adaptation Syndrome\u201d in 1936. This came as a result of his observations on patients which revealed a loss of appetite, exhaustion, weight loss, and other symptoms. Selye succinctly described the body\u2019s basic responses and their outcomes when experiences are stressful, such as those that students go through during the exams and end-of-semester evaluations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, many prestigious universities hold students on high-performance programs to a high academic standard, which exposes many of them to elevated levels of stress due to the demand of carrying out projects and other activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, what is stress?<\/strong> Stress is a process which exists as the body\u2019s natural response to situations that affect its wellbeing, generating various external and internal alarm signals and causing the person to become imbalanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stress includes three key phases: the alarm phase, the resistance phase, and the adaptation phase.<\/strong> The alarm phase is characterized by the development of both psychological and physiological changes, including signs of anxiety, restlessness, and lack of appetite. Resistance and adaptation phases are characterized by the search to restore balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People put compensatory processes into action in order to reduce stress, which can be emotional, cognitive, or physiological. If they don\u2019t compensate for the imbalance, they can cause physiological and psychosomatic disorders which decrease personal performance and general resistance. Finally, the exhaustion phase presents chronic or irreversible disorders at psychosocial, psychological and physiological levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the many causes of stress are academic events or stimuli, which led doctors Berrio Garc\u00eda and Mazo Zea to define academic stress<\/strong> as \u201ca physiological, emotional, cognitive and behavioral reaction to academic events and stimuli.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stress, whether caused by academic factors or others, causes a change in some students\u2019 wellbeing, triggering negative emotional and physical reactions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of these physical reactions is dermatological. These are eczema lesions which are characterized by the presence of erythematous and\/or exudative macules, papules, and plaques, which are a combination of raised skin lesions characterized by inflammation. Occasionally, they appear scaly. These lesions often occur in students already suffering from dermatological problems<\/strong>. There are many different types of dermatitis: seborrheic, herpetiform, and atopic dermatitis, to name but a few. Here, we will focus on atopic dermatitis due to its peculiarity and high frequency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atopic dermatitis<\/strong> is a dermatological problem characterized by a need to scratch caused by an uncomfortable sensation on the skin. This can lead to eczema or inflammation in the scratched areas. It\u2019s important to note that it is not contagious<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atopic dermatitis can be caused by both exogenous<\/strong> and endogenous factors<\/strong>. In the case of endogenous factors, the appearance of this disease is caused as the result of genetic factors. On the other hand, some of the many exogenous factors that can trigger this condition include the environment, exposure to animals, and academic stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of a project supervised by Dr. Mariano Garc\u00eda and Dr. Enrique Guerrero-Beltr\u00e1n for the Research and Technological Resources in Health course, we surveyed students at Tecnol\u00f3gico de Monterrey\u2019s<\/strong> Monterrey Campus in order to assess the prevalence of atopic dermatitis among students and how academic stress influences its development, especially during evaluation periods. We used the Sheldon Cohen Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)<\/em> survey in Spanish to measure the levels of academic stress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results showed that the average student scored 29 during final exams, which is considered a \u201chigh stress\u201d level<\/strong>. On the scale, results from 0-13 are considered low stress, 14-26 are considered medium stress, and 27-40 are considered high stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also confirmed that students suffering from atopic dermatitis who have high stress levels are at greater risk of developing eczema<\/strong> during the same week than those with lower stress levels. Therefore, we concluded that there is a direct and proportional relationship between the academic stress caused by final exams and the appearance of eczema<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m under a lot of stress during final exams and that evidently coincides with the appearance of eczema caused by atopic dermatitis,\u201d said one student on the Health Careers degree program at Tecnol\u00f3gico de Monterrey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mechanisms for preventing<\/strong> and controlling<\/strong> stress<\/strong> in students, Tecnol\u00f3gico de Monterrey has implemented integrated wellbeing<\/strong> tools such as Mindfulness<\/strong> and sports and cultural activities, or opening spaces such as Punto Blanco<\/strong>, which are designed for introspection, meditation, and deep personal reflection in order to strengthen the spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students can reduce general stress levels, and those with atopic dermatitis can reduce the possibility of acute eczema during periods of academic stress, by using the tools and new spaces provided by Tecnol\u00f3gico de Monterrey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Authors:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n