Evidence from:
Cohen S, et al. Psychological Stress and Antibody Response to Immunisation: A Critical Review of the Human Literature. Psychosomatic medicine 63(2001), 7-18
Not having found any evidence that stress moderates responses to immunisation, the authors propose that the stress effect must be in real life exposures, but don’t provide any evidence of this.
The Radar report is available to subscribers:
Evidence from:
SK Agarwal et al. Clinical and Experimental Allergy. Jan (2001) Vol. 31 p.25.
A study of teenagers under stress, and effects on asthma. The hypothesis is that stress induces dysregulation of the immune system by means of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system. The field of study is known as Psycho-neuro-immunology.
An interesting hypothesis but poor research design.
Comment
Psycho-neuro-immunology is an emerging science. If it becomes established, links between psychosocial factors and measurable ill health will become easier to demonstrate.
Evidence from:
Review of the evidence for associations between stress and skin disease.
The evidence of a causal link between stress and skin disease is tentative. Medical opinion may be out of proportion to the strength of the evidence.
The Radar report is available to subscribers:
Evidence from:
B Takkouche et al. Epidemiology. May (2001) Vol. 12 #3 p 345.
Self-reporting of new cold symptoms was predicted by negative affect ( a gloomy world view), perceived stress and stressful events.
The Radar report is available to subscribers:
Evidence from:
SC Roesch et al. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. Apr (2001) Vol. 50 #4 p 205.
A study of the relationship between successful coping with distress and causal belief. It is proposed that people with a positive affect would have a better sense of well being than those with a negative affect, for a given stressful situation, illness.
The authors performed a meta-analysis of reported associations between causal attributions, coping, and psychological adjustment.
The results show that blamers were not well adjusted and did not cope well with illness.
Comment
The above study was of stress induced by apparently innocent illness. It may be the case that when fault is a genuine issue that people of a negative affect will not cope well and may deteriorate.
Evidence from:
CG Ohlson et al. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. September-October (2001) Vol.70 p 268.
The proposed stress markers: cortisol, prolactin, thyroid-stimulating hormone, testosterone and IgA and
IgG were analysed in blood samples.
Prolactin levels fell with increased emotional strain and rose with increased social support. Further evidence of the confused nature of stress research.
The Radar report is available to subscribers:
Evidence from:
M Irie et al. Int. Arch Occup. Environ Health. Mar (2001) Vol. 74(2) p 153.
8-OH-dG levels in the peripheral blood leukocytes were established coincident with a questionnaire survey for workload, fatigue, sleep, psychological stress and the prospect of alleviating it.
Associations were found for women, but not men.
The Radar report is available to subscribers:
