Emotions, Immunity, And Disease

Caregiving Spouses Physical and Mental Health in Perspective

“…Instead, they suggest that the physical and psychosocial environments play important roles in disease development. Solomon, 36 studying the onset and trajectory of rheumatoid arthritis and other auto‐immune diseases, found that failure of psychological defenses and presence of emotional distress were salient factors among patients.…”

Enhancing versus suppressive effects of stress hormones on skin immune function

“…However, a stress-induced enhancement of immune function could also be detrimental if the immune response were directed against an innocuous (e.g., poison ivy, nickel in jewelry, or latex) or autoimmunogenic antigen. This hypothesis could explain the well known stress-induced exacerbation of autoimmune diseases (38)(39)(40). Moreover, we have shown that chronic stress (1) and hormonal conditions that mimic chronic stress suppress immune function.…”

“…Another paradoxical observation is that, on the one hand, stress is thought to suppress immunity and increase susceptibility to infections and cancer (8,10,(35)(36)(37). On the other, it is thought to exacerbate inflammatory diseases (38)(39)(40), like psoriasis, asthma, and arthritis, which should be ameliorated by a suppression of immune function. Keeping these considerations in mind and based on our initial observations on the effects of stress and of the circadian corticosterone rhythm on leukocyte redistribution in the body (12,13), we showed that stress has bidirectional effects on immune function, such that acute stress is immunoenhancing, whereas chronic stress is immunosuppressive (1, 13, 15).…”

Social Threat, Personal Identity, and Physical Health in Closeted Gay Men.

“…Among more than 40 psychological, social, and behavioral variables surveyed, closeted individuals differed only in (a) showing a greater concern for others' impressions of them, on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSD); (b) more frequent display of a repressive coping style-primarily as a function of the previous result, because the MCSD represents a major component of the operational definition of repressive coping style (Weinberger et al, 1979); (c) reporting greater discomfort in social settings in which their homosexuality might be salient to strangers or the general public, on the Social Situations Scale (SSS; McDonald, 1984); and (d) reporting lower levels of emotional expressiveness, particularly for negative affect, on the Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire (EEQ; King & Emmons, 1990). This array of differences shows a striking correspondence to Galen's original description of melancholic individuals as well as a variety of empirically derived personality syndromes falling under the general rubric of "social inhibition," such as Kagan's inhibited temperament, Weinberger and colleagues' repressive coping style, Solomon's immunodysregulatory personality, and the "Type C" cancer-prone personality (Gross, 1989;Kagan, 1994;Rogentine et al, 1979;Solomon & Moos, 1964;Weinberger et al, 1979). Associations between closeting and socially inhibited characteristics emerged in analyses of both the HIV-1 seropositive and the seronegative MACS-NHAPS cohorts and in the subsequent West L. A. Autonomic Study sample described later in this chapter.…”