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KEY STUDY: Stress and Immune Function – Kiecolt-Glaser (1995) To demonstrate the direct effects of stress on the immune system by looking at how quickly wounds heal. A matched participant design experiment was used Participants were recruited using advertisements in newspapers (therefore a volunteer sample) 13 women aged 47-81 years were carers (caring for relatives suffering from senile dementia) and placed in the experimental group. A further 13 were matched with carers on the basis of age and income but not marital status – this was the control group. All participants were given a wound – a ‘punch biopsy’ which is a cut of 3.5mm just below the elbow. The wounds were dressed and treated by a nurse in the same way for each participant A second measure of immune response was taken – researchers assessed levels of cytokines – chemical substances involved in the stress response Participants were given a 10-item perceived stress scale to check how stressed they actually did feel Complete wound healing took significantly longer in the carers than the controls. It took an average of 9 days (24% longer) in the carers Cytokine levels were lower in the carers than the control group On the perceived stress scale, carers indicated that they were feeling more stressed These findings offer support for the view that chronic stress depresses the functioning of the immune system – because wound healing was slower in the individuals that experienced chronic stress Lower levels of cytokines in chronically stressed individuals supports the view that stress lowers immune response directly These findings have important implications for treating people with infections, particularly where people are recovering from surgery. Therefore it would be important to reduce stress as far as possible in patients to speed their recovery The matching of participants was inexact e.g. more of the carers were married and were non-smokers. However, both of these variables are related to lower stress. Social support is known to reduce stress and non smoking is related to better immune functioning. Therefore this sample bias would suggest that carers, if anything, should have better immune functioning. This strengthens the validity of the findings of this study.