Everyday stress-induced neurobehavioral dysregulation: Therapeutic targets for management with Neurexan

Stephan Duller¹Gerard Clarke^2,3Suzana Herculano-Houzel⁴Roland von Känel⁵Peter Kirsch⁶Hans-Peter Landolt⁷Britta Naschold⁸Stefan Oskar Reber⁹Rudy Schreiber¹⁰Martin Walter¹¹George M Slavich^12*

• ¹Elementrial Clinical Research & Development, Graz, Styria, Austria
• ²APC Microbiome Institute, College of Medicine and Health, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
• ³Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Science, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
• ⁴Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
• ⁵Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zürich, Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
• ⁶Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
• ⁷Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
• ⁸Heel GmbH, Baden-Baden, Germany
• ⁹Laboratory for Molecular Psychosomatics, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Ulm University Medical Center, Ulm, Germany
• ¹⁰Department of Psychopharmacology and Neuropsychopharmacology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
• ¹¹Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Jena, Jena, Thuringia, Germany
• ¹²Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, California, United States

Everyday stress is highly prevalent and can impact human health, performance, well-being, and mortality risk. Despite being widely acknowledged, everyday stress is rarely assessed or treated, highlighting a critical gap in clinical routine. To better understand the relevance of everyday stress for healthcare professionals, we use the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework to link stress neurobiology to its behavioral signs and symptoms. According to RDoC, everyday stress is conceptualized as impacting domains of basic neurobiological functioning. Everyday stress influences two primary domains – the negative valence domain, and arousal and regulatory systems – that can, in turn, lead to mental and physical health problems. Neurexan, a natural multi-component medication, targets these two domains. We review recent data on how Neurexan can mitigate the negative impact of stress on the negative valence domain and regulate arousal, thus helping to restore neurobiological and clinical functioning. This review provides an overview of relevant aspects of stress, mainly everyday stress, and the latest research on Neurexan as a potential option to target everyday stress. More broadly, this work may lead to new methods of assessing and managing everyday stress to improve the psychosocial resilience and well-being of individuals facing difficulty coping with repetitive or chronic stress in their daily lives.