Bereavement and marriage are associated with antibody response to influenza vaccination in the elderly

Stressful life events exposure including bereavement, an event commonly experienced by elderly people, social support, marital status and satisfaction were examined in relation to antibody response to the annual trivalent influenza vaccination in an elderly community sample (N = 184). Antibody response was assessed at baseline, and at one and 12 months following vaccination. Taking into account baseline antibody titer, overall life events exposure and social support were not associated with response to any of the influenza strains. However, bereavement in the year prior to vaccination was negatively associated with the one-month response to the A/Panama and B/Shangdong strains. Being married and having higher marital satisfaction was also associated with higher peak responses to the A/Panama influenza strain at one month. The positive association between marital satisfaction and A/Panama response was particularly evident in the younger half of the married sample. These associations largely withstood adjustment for potential confounders. Thus, in the elderly, peak antibody response was associated with bereavement and marriage, and not the more general factors, life events and social support, related to antibody response in student samples. This suggests the importance of taking a life course approach to examining relationships between psychosocial factors and immunity, and that interventions to modify the impact of these factors should address those most salient for each age group

Stress and Exercise

Age-related immunological and endocrinological changes may have implications for resilience to stress in older adults. We hypothesise that the combination of adrenopause and immunesenescence may leave this population particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of stress on immunity. We propose that exercise may be an effective intervention to limit the impact of stress on immunity in chronically stressed older populations

The attachment system and physiology in adulthood: normative processes, individual differences, and implications for health.

Attachment theory provides a conceptual framework for understanding intersections between personality and close relationships in adulthood. Moreover, attachment has implications for stress-related physiology and physical health. We review work on normative processes and individual differences in the attachment behavioral system, as well as their associations with biological mechanisms related to health outcomes. We highlight the need for more basic research on normative processes and physiology and discuss our own research on individual differences in attachment and links with physiology. We then describe a novel perspective on attachment and physiology, wherein stress-related physiological changes may also be viewed as supporting the social-cognitive and emotion regulatory functions of the attachment system through providing additional energy to the brain, which has implications for eating behavior and health. We close by discussing our work on individual differences in attachment and restorative processes, including sleep and skin repair, and by stressing the importance of developing biologically plausible models for describing how attachment may impact chronic illness

An Investigation into the Link Between Heart Rate Variability and Intrusive Thoughts: Implications for Cancer Survivors

Psychology: 3rd Place (The Ohio State University Denman Undergraduate Research Forum)Cancer survivors often suffer from long-term health problems like cardiac dysfunction, chronic stress, fatigue, and depression. One common underlying factor for these problems is low heart-rate variability (HRV), exhibiting less variation in the time interval between heartbeats, which is also linked to all-cause mortality. Research has found that stress in the form of persistent, negative thoughts is also linked to poor health and thought to have a direct, harmful impact on somatic disease; however, only a handful of studies investigating this theory have been conducted in cancer populations. Our study examined the relationship between HRV and intrusive thoughts among cancer survivors. We hypothesized that female breast cancer survivors who experience higher levels of intrusive thoughts will exhibit lower HRV than those who experience lower levels of intrusive thoughts. Stage 0-IIIA breast cancer survivors (N = 200) were recruited for a larger study exploring the effects of yoga on survivors’ stress, fatigue, and inflammation. Subject’s baseline intrusive thoughts using the Impact of Events Scale (IES) were compared to their baseline HRV levels. Analyses revealed that cancer survivors with higher IES scores (intrusive thoughts) have lower HRV than those with lower IES scores (r=-0.169, p=0.031). Effects remained significant when controlling for age, cancer stage, time of treatment to baseline visit, and body mass index. These results confirm our hypothesis, indicating that women more distressed about their cancer diagnosis exhibited lower HRV than those who were less distressed; establishing an important, novel link between survivors’ vulnerability to certain health problems and the impact that mental, emotional cancer-related distress has on somatic health. Early identification of those experiencing traumatic cancer-related distress upon diagnosis, as indexed by intrusive thoughts, will be important in helping to prolong the long-term health of cancer survivors.Undergraduate Student Pelotonia Cancer Research FellowshipAcademic Major: NeuroscienceAcademic Major: Psycholog

Tumor site immune markers associated with risk for subsequent basal cell carcinomas.

BackgroundBasal cell carcinoma (BCC) tumors are the most common skin cancer and are highly immunogenic.ObjectiveThe goal of this study was to assess how immune-cell related gene expression in an initial BCC tumor biopsy was related to the appearance of subsequent BCC tumors.Materials and methodsLevels of mRNA for CD3ε (a T-cell receptor marker), CD25 (the alpha chain of the interleukin (IL)-2 receptor expressed on activated T-cells and B-cells), CD68 (a marker for monocytes/macrophages), the cell surface glycoprotein intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), the cytokine interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 were measured in BCC tumor biopsies from 138 patients using real-time PCR.ResultsThe median follow-up was 26.6 months, and 61% of subjects were free of new BCCs two years post-initial biopsy. Patients with low CD3ε CD25, CD68, and ICAM-1 mRNA levels had significantly shorter times before new tumors were detected (p = 0.03, p = 0.02, p = 0.003, and p = 0.08, respectively). Furthermore, older age diminished the association of mRNA levels with the appearance of subsequent tumors.ConclusionsOur results show that levels of CD3ε, CD25, CD68, and ICAM-1 mRNA in BCC biopsies may predict risk for new BCC tumors

Attentional breadth and proximity seeking in romantic attachment relationships

The present study provides first evidence that attentional breadth responses can be influenced by proximity-distance goals in adult attachment relationships. In a sample of young couples, we measured attachment differences in the breadth of attentional focus in response to attachment-related cues. Results showed that priming with a negative attachment scenario broadens attention when confronted with pictures of the attachment figure in highly avoidant men. In women, we found that attachment anxiety was associated with a more narrow attentional focus on the attachment figure, yet only at an early stage of information processing. We also found that women showed a broader attentional focus around the attachment figure when their partner was more avoidantly attached. This pattern of results reflects the underlying action of attachment strategies and provides insight into the complex and dynamic influence of attachment on attentional processing in a dyadic context

Effect of exposure to natural environment on health inequalities: an observational population study

<b>Background:</b> Studies have shown that exposure to the natural environment, or so-called green space, has an independent effect on health and health-related behaviours. We postulated that income-related inequality in health would be less pronounced in populations with greater exposure to green space, since access to such areas can modify pathways through which low socio-economic position can lead to disease.<p></p> <b>Methods:</b> We classified the population of England at younger than retirement age (n=40 813 236) into groups on the basis of income deprivation and exposure to green space. We obtained individual mortality records (n=366 348) to establish whether the association between income deprivation, all-cause mortality, and cause-specific mortality (circulatory disease, lung cancer, and intentional self-harm) in 2001—05, varied by exposure to green space measured in 2001, with control for potential confounding factors. We used stratified models to identify the nature of this variation.<p></p> <b>Findings:</b> The association between income deprivation and mortality differed significantly across the groups of exposure to green space for mortality from all causes (p<0·0001) and circulatory disease (p=0·0212), but not from lung cancer or intentional self-harm. Health inequalities related to income deprivation in all-cause mortality and mortality from circulatory diseases were lower in populations living in the greenest areas. The incidence rate ratio (IRR) for all-cause mortality for the most income deprived quartile compared with the least deprived was 1·93 (95% CI 1·86—2·01) in the least green areas, whereas it was 1·43 (1·34—1·53) in the most green. For circulatory diseases, the IRR was 2·19 (2·04—2·34) in the least green areas and 1·54 (1·38—1·73) in the most green. There was no effect for causes of death unlikely to be affected by green space, such as lung cancer and intentional self-harm.<p></p> <b>Interpretation:</b> Populations that are exposed to the greenest environments also have lowest levels of health inequality related to income deprivation. Physical environments that promote good health might be important to reduce socio-economic health inequalities.<p></p&gt

Lymphocyte mitogenesis, immunoglobulin and complement levels in depressed patients and normal controls

The central nervous system and the immune system are closely related. Psychiatric illness is often associated with a dysregulation of the immune response. In an attempt to expand on previously reported immune abnormalities in patients with depressive illness, we compared several immune measures in a group of hospitalized depressed patients and healthy normal controls. Depressed patients had significantly higher percentages of circulating neutrophils, significantly lower percentages of circulating lymphocytes and significantly lower in vitro lymphocyte responses to mitogenic stimulation than normal controls. Basal plasma cortisol and circulating levels of the complement components C3 and C4 were also higher in the depressed group. We also found a significant association between cortisol values and the traffic of leukocytes on the one hand, and complement levels and the lymphocyte mitogenic activities on the other. These findings expand previously reported evidence of immune abnormalities in depressive illness and provide a partial explanation for some of these findings.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65846/1/j.1600-0447.1989.tb01316.x.pd

The effects of expressive writing before or after punch biopsy on wound healing

Objective: Recent studies have shown that written emotional disclosure (expressive writing) performed in the two weeks prior to wounding improves healing of punch biopsy wounds. In many clinical settings, it would be more practical for patients to perform this intervention after wounding. The aim of this study was to investigate whether expressive writing could speed the healing of punch biopsy wounds if writing was performed after wounds were made. Methods: One hundred and twenty-two healthy participants aged between 18 and 55 years were randomly allocated to one of four groups in a 2 (intervention) by 2 (timing) design. Participants performed either expressive writing or neutral writing, either before or after receiving a 4 mm punch biopsy wound. Wounds were photographed on day 10 (primary endpoint) and day 14 after the biopsy to measure epithelisation. Participants also completed questionnaires on stress and affect two weeks prior to the biopsy, on the day of biopsy and two weeks after biopsy. Results: There was a significant difference in healing at day 10 between groups, χ2(3, N = 97) = 8.84, p = 0.032. A significantly greater proportion of participants who performed expressive writing before the biopsy had fully reepithelialised wounds on day 10 compared to participants who performed neutral writing either before or after wounding, with no other significant differences between groups. Amongst people who wrote expressively after wounding, those who finished writing over the first 6 days were significantly more likely to be healed at 14 days than those who finished writing later. There were significant differences in positive and negative affect over the healing period between the pre and post expressive writing groups. Conclusions: Expressive writing can improve healing if it is performed prior to wounding. Performing expressive writing after wounding may be able to improve healing depending on the timing of writing and wound assessment. Expressive writing causes affect to worsen followed by subsequent improvement and it is important to consider this in the timing of intervention delivery. Further research with patient groups is required to determine the clinical relevance of these findings