Health Psychology: Developing Biologically Plausible Models Linking the Social World and Physical Health

Abstract

Research over the past several decades has documented psychosocial influences on the development and progression of several major medical illnesses. The field is now increasingly focused on identifying the biological and behavioral mechanisms underlying these effects. This review takes stock of the knowledge accumulated in the biological arena to date and highlights conceptual and methodological approaches that have proven especially productive. It emphasizes the value of a diseasecentered approach that "reverse engineers" adverse health outcomes into their specific biological determinants and then identifies psychologically modulated neuroendocrine and immunologic dynamics that modulate those pathological processes at the cellular and molecular levels.

Body mass and cognitive decline are indirectly associated via inflammation among aging adults

“…Higher body mass has been consistently linked with increased inflammation (Visser et al, 1999 andWisse, 2004) as well as lower cognitive functioning (Benito-León et al, 2013, Cournot et al, 2006and Memel et al, 2016, and higher levels of inflammation predicts cognitive decline (Perry et al, 2007, Tegeler et al, 2016, Teunissen et al, 2003and Yaffe et al, 2003, but no previous studies have tested the associations body mass, inflammation, and cognitive decline in a single, integrated model. Once a robust link between a biometric risk factor, such as body mass, and an outcome of clinical interest is established, it essential to test the more proximal potential biological mechanisms that might help explain this association using mediation models that integrate the relevant biological intermediary into the pathways from risk factor to outcome (Miller et al, 2009). Our measure of circulating inflammation, CRP (a measure of systemic inflammation in the periphery), evidenced a significant indirect effect that accounted for the association between body mass and cognition; circulating levels of systemic inflammation are associated neuro-inflammation (Marsland et al, 2015, Perry, 2004and Perry, 2010).…”

Care Partners and Multiple Sclerosis

“…32,33 In one such study, chronically stressed men and women caring for spouses with dementia showed a four-fold increase in interleukin-6 production compared with noncare partners. Those with the greatest interleukin-6 levels had a two-fold increased risk of death in the next 4 to 5 years compared with those with the lowest levels.…”

Transcript origin analysis identifies antigen-presenting cells as primary targets of socially regulated gene expression in leukocytes

“…Evolutionarily ancient myeloid antigen-presenting cells appear to have evolved a transcriptional sensitivity to socioenvironmental conditions that may allow them to shift basal gene expression profiles to counter the changing microbial threats associated with hostile vs. affine social conditions. social genomics | inflammation | bioinformatics | ecological immunology R esearch in social genomics has linked adverse life circumstances to changes in the expression of hundreds of genes in circulating human immune cells (1)(2)(3). Those genes subject to socioenvironmental regulation do not represent a random crosssection of our ∼22,000 genes, however.…”