Stress-Related Illness

What is a Stress-Related Illness?

In the ten plus years that Dr. Rapkin has been in private practice, she has come to realize that stress contributes to and aggravates the health of her patients in both expected and unexpected ways.  While it is understandable that she treats anxiety, depression, panic, and insomnia, we may be surprised to hear that she works with patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders, and addictions.  By the same token, it may seem very obvious that headaches, ulcers, and muscle pain have a stress component to them, and yet it may be less obvious that cardiovascular disease including high blood pressure and heart attacks, asthma, irritable and inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer have all been found to be stress-related as well.

Before making the decision to focus on mind-body medicine and mental health, Dr. Rapkin had a general family practice.  In seeing all manner of illnesses, she came to the conclusion that stress and/or emotional distress contribute to and aggravate many more types of illnesses than have been categorized as stress-related.  Autoimmune diseases, endocrine imbalances, fertility issues, and chronic pain syndromes are all conditions where Dr. Rapkin has explored the possibility of a stress connection and feels that she has offered patients new approaches to their health that have only complemented their existing medical care.  Dr. Rapkin will work with patients with any health concern, physical or emotional, in which the patient feels stress or emotional upset is an aggravating or contributing factor.