Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31127781›Full record

ReviewJournal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD2019

Air Pollution, Stress, and Allostatic Load: Linking Systemic and Central Nervous System Impacts.

Errol M Thomson

Open access · bronzeAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 112 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
112citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
13.8field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

112 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 277 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Association between air pollution and allergic upper respiratory diseases: a meta-analysis.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2025
    Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Trial
  6. Trial
  7. Review
  8. Review
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Revisiting 'environmental effects': Directions for multidisciplinary investigations of air quality and psychopathology.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2026
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Associations between joint air pollution exposure, mental health, and physical health and dementia incidence in an aging U.S. cohort.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026
    Article
  16. Neurobiophilia.Brain sciences · 2026
    Review
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Review
  20. Article

52 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Errol M ThomsonEnvironmental Health Science and Research Bureau, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Health Canada · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Air pollution is a risk factor for cardiovascular and respiratory morbidity and mortality. A growing literature also links exposure to diverse air pollutants (e.g., nanoparticles, particulate matter, ozone, traffic-related air pollution) with brain health, including increased incidence of neurological and psychiatric disorders such as cognitive decline, dementia (including Alzheimer's disease), anxiety, depression, and suicide. A critical gap in our understanding of adverse impacts of pollutants on the central nervous system (CNS) is the early initiating events triggered by pollutant inhalation that contribute to disease progression. Recent experimental evidence has shown that particulate matter and ozone, two common pollutants with differing characteristics and reactivity, can activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and release glucocorticoid stress hormones (cortisol in humans, corticosterone in rodents) as part of a neuroendocrine stress response. The brain is highly sensitive to stress: stress hormones affect cognition and mental health, and chronic stress can produce profound biochemical and structural changes in the brain. Chronic activation and/or dysfunction of the HPA axis also increases the burden on physiological stress response systems, conceptualized as allostatic load, and is a common pathway implicated in many diseases. The present paper provides an overview of how systemic stress-dependent biological responses common to particulate matter and ozone may provide insight into early CNS effects of pollutants, including links with oxidative, inflammatory, and metabolic processes. Evidence of pollutant effect modification by non-chemical stressors (e.g., socioeconomic position, psychosocial, noise), age (prenatal to elderly), and sex will also be reviewed in the context of susceptibility across the lifespan.

Indexed as

AllostasisAir PollutantsAir PollutionAnimalsCentral Nervous SystemCentral Nervous System DiseasesHealth StatusHumansStress, PsychologicalAir PollutantsAir pollutionbraincognitiondementiadepressionhypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axismental healthozoneparticulate matter

Identifiers

PMID31127781
PMCPMC6598002
OpenAlexW2945980358

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.