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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

The psychoneuroendocrinology of chronic stress and depression: from learned helplessness to learned controllability

Psychoneuroendocrinology of chronic stress and depression: from learned helplessness to learned controllability

Perceived control is proposed to be a teachable process that reverses the neurobiological pattern of learned helplessness, potentially paving the way for new preventive and therapeutic approaches to the effects of chronic stress.

The talk examines the proposition that the consequences of chronic exposure to environmental stressors differ markedly depending on whether individuals perceive themselves as able to influence adverse events. It suggests that a persistent and enduring sense of uncontrollability can lead to learned helplessness, which is associated with the onset and development of depression. At the neurobiological level, helplessness is linked to increased activity in the serotonergic dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) and the amygdala, together with reduced recruitment of prefrontal regulatory regions, particularly the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). By contrast, perceived control recruits the DLPFC and VMPFC, reduces DRN and amygdala responses, and increases activity in the serotonergic median raphe nucleus (MRN); it is also accompanied by reduced ventral hippocampal activation and greater recruitment of the ventral striatum, including the nucleus accumbens. At the functional level, these circuits are proposed to support active coping, adaptive cognitive and emotional processing, effective decision-making, and goal-directed behavior. These processes may reduce anxiety, increase tolerance of adversity, stabilize emotional responses, and strengthen resilience. The talk argues that if helplessness can be learned through experience, controllability can likewise be learned and deliberately reinforced, and that training in problem-solving, adaptive decision-making, and goal-directed coping could translate this framework into new preventive and therapeutic approaches. Learned controllability is presented as an integrative psychoneuroendocrinological model explaining how perceived agency may buffer the effects of chronic stress.

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