Chronic psychosocial stress linked to higher perivascular space volumes in healthy young adults

This cohort study included 61 healthy young adults to assess the relationship between chronic psychosocial stress and MRI-visible perivascular space volumes. Participants were compared against individuals with lower chronic psychosocial stress levels. The primary outcome measured fractional perivascular space volumes across multiple brain regions.

Significantly higher fractional perivascular space volumes were found in the centrum semiovale and in the frontal and occipital lobes among individuals with higher chronic psychosocial stress. These differences reached statistical significance with a false discovery rate p-value less than .05. No effect was found in the basal ganglia, CSO subdivision, or parietal and temporal lobes, where the false discovery rate exceeded .09.

Safety data, adverse events, and discontinuations were not reported in this observational study. Key limitations include the need to establish effects on the cerebral microvasculature and the lack of inflammatory marker or blood-brain barrier measures to elucidate mechanistic pathways. Future multimodal research may help clarify these pathways.

The study indicates that chronic psychosocial stress may contribute to subtle, centrum semiovale specific microvascular alterations even in healthy young adults. However, causality is not established, and these findings should be interpreted with caution regarding clinical practice relevance.