The cost of stress: A dilemma with healthy mutation carriers

Literature poses the question of whether people bear a prior physiological tendency to react to stress that makes them more susceptible to onset of diseases or whether traumatic events are powerful enough to trigger a physiological reaction that ultimately induces a disease. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with a sudden and rapid onset and progression. Thus far, no therapeutic or prophylactic treatment has been available. Recently, it was found that apparently healthy mutation carriers of CJD demonstrate higher anxiety levels than noncarriers from the same families. Furthermore, there seems to be a connection between stressful life events and the onset of CJD. Over the past few years, people whose relatives died due to CJD are becoming increasingly interested in genetic consultation based on a fear that they too are carrying the mutation. The dilemma of "cost-benefit" of making available such information in this unique stressed population is discussed.