Chronic stress, cognitive functioning and mental health

► Chronic stress impacts cognition and increases vulnerability to mental illness. ► Findings have first emerged from the field of healthy and pathological aging. ► Other mental health problems in younger populations are also chronic stress models. ► There are individual differences regarding stress, cognition and mental health. ► Individual factors must be considered to understand the impact of chronic stress. This review aims to discuss the evidence supporting the link between chronic stress, cognitive function and mental health. Over the years, the associations between these concepts have been investigated in different populations. This review summarizes the findings that have emerged from older populations as well as from populations suffering from pathological aging, namely Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease. Although older adults are an interesting population to study in terms of chronic stress, other stress-related diseases can occur throughout the lifespan. The second section covers some of these stress-related diseases that have recently received a great deal of attention, namely burnout, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Given that chronic stress contributes to the development of certain pathologies by accelerating and/or exacerbating pre-existing vulnerabilities that vary from one individual to the other, the final section summarizes data obtained on potential variables contributing to the association between chronic stress and cognition.