Gaceta Médica Espirituana (Jul 2023)
Hans Hugo Bruno Selye and the stress, a milestone in the modern medical history
Abstract
Background: Hans Hugo Bruno Selye, Austro-Hungarian physiologist and physician, born January 26, 1907, later naturalized Canadian citizen, this man who lived 75 years and became the Director of Experimental Medicine and Surgery Institute of Montreal University in Canada, until his retirement in 1970. He passed away in 1982, in the same city. Objective: Describe the life and achievements of the distinguished academic Hans Hugo Bruno Selye and the history of stress as a milestone in modern medical history. Methodology: A historical retrospective study was conducted using theoretical methods such as documental and historical-logical analysis. Development: The doctor began to build his famous theory about the influence of stress on the ability of persons to cope or adjust to the injury or illness consequences in the second year of his medical studies (1926). He discovered with this investigation that patients with a variety of ailments exhibited similar symptoms, which could be attributed to the organism efforts to respond to the condition of being sick. He named this set of symptoms stress syndrome or general adaptation syndrome (GAS). Conclusions: This physician is one of the greatest personalities in medical history; his stress theory provided a transcendental conceptual framework for later issues of the mechanisms and manifestations for stress reactions.
