Just as an inoculation against a viral infection prevents sickness by introducing a controlled amount of virus into the body, an inoculation against stress exposes an individual to a controlled and measured level of stress, which in turn helps them build up psychological resilience against future traumatic experiences. At least, this is the basic idea behind the stress inoculation hypothesis.
Published in the peer-reviewed British Journal of Psychiatry in 2020, the study “Assessing the relationship between psychosocial stressors and psychiatric resilience among Chilean disaster survivors” produced findings that definitively contradict the stress inoculation hypothesis. The researchers analyzed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) testing data from survivors of the historically powerful earthquake that struck Chile in 2010.
Comparing PTSD and MDD test results before and after this disaster, the study’s authors found that those who had experienced multiple stressors before the Chilean earthquake were more susceptible to stress related disorder from the quake compared to those with fewer stressors. These conclusions indicate that an “inoculation” of stress doesn’t decrease vulnerability to PTSD or MDD, but instead increases it.
Dr. Robert Kohn 