Download Document

Stress and Illness –
Key point
If you repeatedly turn on the stress-response, or if
you cannot appropriately turn off the stressresponse at the end of a stressful event, the stressresponse can eventually become as damaging as
some stressors themselves.
A large percentage of stress-related diseases are
disorders of excessive stress-response.
Robert Sapolsky– (show clips from Stress – Portrait of a Killer)
Stress and Illness –
• What is the relationship between stress and
illness?
– Stress
– Stress
changes in physiology
changes in behaviour
• Moderating factors: Coping, social support,
personality, and control
Health Consequences of Negative Emotions
Coronary Heart Disease
and Stress
• Rates of CHD is higher in those with high
stress jobs. Why?
– BP chronically elevated (wear and tear!)
– Epi  circulating platelets clump together
– Atherosclerosis (plaques)
• Kaplan’s research with monkeys (re: social
stress & unstable hierarchy)
Immunity
and Stress
T cell
Immune System Overview
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
• Subfield of health psychology that
emphasizes the interaction of psychological,
neuroendocrine, and immunological
processes in stress and illness
• An individual’s psychological state
influences the immune system via the
nervous system
PNI: From stressor to illness
• The magnitude and frequency of the stress
response regulate immune competence (e.g., via
glucocorticoids)
• Level of immune competence determines
susceptibility to disease
PNI Studies
• Immunosuppression has been linked to divorce,
bereavement, unemployment, exam periods,
occupational stress, and stressful bouts of exercise
– e.g., Life stress and exposure to cold viruses
• Wound studies (Kiecolt-Glaser)
• Animal studies show that tumor cells
grow more rapidly in animals exposed to electric
shock, loud noise, or other stressors
Sapolsky’s baboons
• Primate Research Findings:
• High and Low Social Status
– High cortisol is associated with low social
status (instability and less controllability)
– Low status – Fewer lymphocytes and weak
immune system
Sapolsky’s baboons
Studies with dominant male baboons suggest
that attitude (“personality”) and “culture”
are also important (i.e., just being alpha
male isn’t necessarily good, if one is highstrung about it…)
Forest-troop (killed by dump TB)
In humans…