Researchers also acknowledge that high-levels of stress can be maintained even after a distressful event has passed. This is common in victims of highly traumatic events, such as surviving a war, natural disasters, or violent assaults; they may carry a heightened risk of dementia and Alzheimer's Disease.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules that the state constitution gives gay and lesbian couples the right to marry, making the Bay State the first in the nation to allow same-sex marriage. Weddings begin in 2004.
RELATED: Marriage Equality Comes to North Carolina. Just days after the Supreme Court declined to hear state appeals in support of a ban on same-sex marriage, a federal judge in North Carolina ruled Amendment One unconstitutional on Oct. 10, 2014, allowing same-sex couples to marry across the state for the first time.