An Ontology-Based Analysis of Health Disorders Derived from Stress-Evoked Peripheral Immune Responses

The paper operates within the established psychoneuroimmunology paradigm, which posits that chronic stress triggers peripheral immune responses and low-grade inflammation, contributing to the pathogenesis of various diseases. The research addresses the lack of a formal structure for understanding the specific immunological pathways that link stress to a diverse set of comorbidities, such as depression, IBD, metabolic syndrome, and coronary heart disease.

This preprint is classified as Model Drift because it introduces a novel conceptual model to refine the existing paradigm. Rather than simply adding data, it uses Formal Concept Analysis to construct a new ontological framework that organizes the complex relationships between stress-induced diseases and their associated immune markers. The resulting three-phase hierarchical model (induction, progression, consolidation) offers a more structured explanation for the observed phenomena, addressing a recognized lack of clarity in the current paradigm and proposing a new way to conceptualize disease progression and identify biomarkers, which is a hallmark of a drift toward a more refined model.