1) Stress can negatively impact health through physiological changes induced by the stress response and prolonged psychological stress has been implicated in various illnesses.
2) The stress response is a complex process involving the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and sympathetic nervous system that produces both short-term adaptive and long-term maladaptive effects on the body.
3) Chronic stress has been shown to impair immune function and increase susceptibility to disease, while acute stress can enhance immune responses in the short term through the release of inflammatory cytokines.
1) Stress can negatively impact health through physiological changes induced by the stress response and prolonged psychological stress has been implicated in various illnesses.
2) The stress response is a complex process involving the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and sympathetic nervous system that produces both short-term adaptive and long-term maladaptive effects on the body.
3) Chronic stress has been shown to impair immune function and increase susceptibility to disease, while acute stress can enhance immune responses in the short term through the release of inflammatory cytokines.
1) Stress can negatively impact health through physiological changes induced by the stress response and prolonged psychological stress has been implicated in various illnesses.
2) The stress response is a complex process involving the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and sympathetic nervous system that produces both short-term adaptive and long-term maladaptive effects on the body.
3) Chronic stress has been shown to impair immune function and increase susceptibility to disease, while acute stress can enhance immune responses in the short term through the release of inflammatory cytokines.
1) Stress can negatively impact health through physiological changes induced by the stress response and prolonged psychological stress has been implicated in various illnesses.
2) The stress response is a complex process involving the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and sympathetic nervous system that produces both short-term adaptive and long-term maladaptive effects on the body.
3) Chronic stress has been shown to impair immune function and increase susceptibility to disease, while acute stress can enhance immune responses in the short term through the release of inflammatory cytokines.
Chapter 17: BIOPSYCHOLOGY OF EMOTION, STRESS, AND HEALTH
Stress and Health
• Stress: cluster of physiological changes as a result of exposure to harm or threat; stress response • Stressors: experiences that induce the stress response • Chronic psychological stress: most frequently implicated in ill health The Stress Response • Hans Selye: first described the stress response in the 1950s o Stress response is dual in nature: it produces adaptive changes that help the animal respond to the stressor (e.g., mobilization of energy resources); in the long term, however, it produces changes that are maladaptive (e.g., enlarged adrenal glands) • Activation of the anterior-pituitary adrenal-cortex system o Stressors acting on neural circuits stimulate the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) from the anterior pituitary à triggers release of glucocorticoids from the adrenal cortex à produce many of the components of the stress response o The level of circulating glucocorticoids is the most commonly employed physiological measure of stress • Stressors activate the sympathetic nervous system, thereby increasing the amounts of epinephrine and nor- epinephrine released from the adrenal medulla • Both physical and psychological stressors induce the same general stress response • Stress responses are complex and varied, with the exact response depending on the stressor, its timing, the nature of the stressed person, and how the stressed person reacts to the stressor • 1990s: it was discovered that stressors produce physiological reactions that participate in the body’s inflammatory responses • Stressors produce an increase in blood levels of cytokines, a group of peptide hormones that are released by many cells and participate in a variety of physiological and immunological responses, causing inflammation and fever o The cytokines are now classified with the adrenal hormones as major stress hormones Animal Models of Stress • Early stress research on nonhumans tended to involve extreme forms of stress such as repeated exposure to electric shock or long periods of physical restraint • 2 problems: o Ethics o It uses extreme, unnatural forms of stress are often of questionable scientific value § Responses to extreme stress tend to mask normal variations in the stress response, and it is difficult to relate the results of such studies to common human stressors • Subordination stress: results when conspecific threat becomes an enduring feature of daily life o Studies in social species that form dominance hierarchies o Subordinate male rodents who are continually attacked by more dominant males are more likely to attack juveniles, have smaller testes, shorter life spans, lower blood levels of testosterone, and higher blood levels of glucocorticoids Psychosomatic Disorders: The Case of Gastric Ulcers • Psychosomatic disorders: medical disorders in which psychological factors play a causal role • Gastric ulcers: painful lesions to the lining of the stomach and duodenum o Bacteria Helicobacter pylori are responsible for all cases of gastric ulcers except those caused by non- steroidal anti- inflammatory agents such as aspirin o However, H. pylori infection alone is insufficient to produce the disorder in most people o Antibiotics improve the condition of many patients with gastric ulcers, but so do psychological treatments—and they do it without reducing signs of H. pylori infection o Stress increases the susceptibility of the stomach wall to damage from H. pylori • Gastric ulcers occur more commonly in people living in stressful situations, and stressors can produce gastric ulcers in laboratory animals Psychoneuroimmunology: Stress, the Immune System, and the Brain • 1970s: it was discovered that stress can increase susceptibility to infectious diseases • Psychoneuroimmunology: study of interactions among psychological factors, the nervous system, and the immune system; emerged during the early 1908s • The body has 4 lines of defense to keep it from being overwhelmed by microorganisms o Behavioral immune systems: humans are motivated to avoid contact with individuals who are displaying symptoms of illness, and their bodies are primed to respond more aggressively to infection when they perceive signs of infection in others o Variety of surface barriers: skin, mechanisms that protect from invasions through bodily openings (e.g. coughing, sneezing, tears, mucous) o If microorganisms do manage to breach the surface barriers and enter the body, they are met by two additional lines of defense: the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system à immune system Innate Immune System • Reacts quickly and generally near points of entry of pathogens (disease-causing agents) to the body • Triggered when receptors called toll-like receptors bind to molecules on the surface of the pathogens or when injured cells send out alarm signals • Reaction; complex, but general, array of chemical and cellular reactions (reactions to all pathogens are the same) o Inflammation (swelling): triggered by the release of chemicals from damaged cells § Cytokine attract leukocytes (white blood cells) and other phagocytes (engulf and destroy pathogens) into the infected area (e.g. microgilia: phagocytes in the CNS) § Cytokines promote healing of the damaged tissue once the pathogens are destroyed o Phagocytosis: one of the 1st immune reactions to have evolved Adaptive Immune System • Evolved more recently, first appearing in early vertebrates • Slower immune reaction to pathogens takes longer to be fully manifested • Specific: reacts against specific antigens • Has a memory: once it has reacted against a particular pathogen, it reacts more effectively against that same pathogen in the future • Lymphocytes; specialized leukocytes; main cells of AIS o Produced in bone marrow and the thymus gland and are stored in the lymphatic system until they are activated • Cell-mediated immunity: directed by T cells o Phagocyte ingests a foreign microorganism à phagocyte displays the microorganisms’ antigens (molecules that can trigger an immune response) on the surface of its cell membrane à attracts T cells o Each T cell has two kinds of receptors on its surface, one for molecules that are normally found on the surface of phagocytes and other body cells, and one for a specific foreign antigen o There are millions of different receptors for foreign antigens on T cells, but there is only one kind on each T cell, and there are only a few T cells with each kind of receptor o Once a T cell with a receptor for the foreign antigen binds to the surface of an infected macrophage, a series of reactions is initiated § Multiplication of the bound T cell, creating more T cells with the specific receptor necessary to destroy all invaders that contain the target antigens and all body cells that have been infected by the invaders • Antibody-mediated immunity; directed by B cells o B cell binds to a foreign antigen for which it contains an appropriate receptor à B cell multiplies and synthesizes a lethal form of its receptor molecules (antibodies) à antibodies are released into the intracellular fluid, where they bind to the foreign antigens and destroy or deactivate the microorganisms that possess them o Memory B cells for the specific antigen are also produced during the process § These cells have a long life and accelerate antibody-mediated immunity if there is a subsequent infection by the same microorganism o The memory of the adaptive immune system is the mechanism that gives vaccinations their prophylactic (preventive) effect § Vaccination involves administering a weakened form of a virus so that if the virus later invades, the adaptive immune system is prepared to act against it (immunization) What effect does stress have on immune function: Disruptive or beneficial? • Meta-analysis of Segerstrom and Miller (2004): reviewed about 300 previous studies of stress and immune function o Effects of stress on immune function depended on the kind of stress § Acute (brief) stressors (i.e. those lasting less than 100 minutes) à improvements in immune function • Improvements occurred mainly in the innate immune system, whose components can be marshaled quickly § Chronic (long-lasting) stressors (e.g. caring for an ill relative) à adversely affected the adaptive immune system o Distress: stress that disrupts health or other aspects of functioning o Eustress: stress that improves health or other aspects of functioning • Discovery of the bidirectional role played by the cytokines in the innate immune system o Short-term cytokine-induced inflammatory responses help the body combat infection, whereas long-term cytokine release is associated with a variety of adverse health consequences How does stress influence immune function? • Stress produces widespread changes in the body through its effects on the anterior-pituitary adrenal-cortex system and the sympathetic-nervous-system adrenal-medulla system, and there are innumerable mechanisms by which those systems can influence immune function • Many of the neuropeptides that are released by neurons are also released by cells of the immune system • Cytokines, originally thought to be produced only be cells of the immune system, have been found to be produced by cells of the nervous system • There are behavioral routes by which stress can affect immune function (e.g. people under severe stress often change their diet, exercise, sleep) • The behavior of a stressed or ill person can produce stress and illness in others (e.g. asthma in children increases measures of stress in their mothers) Does stress affect susceptibility to infectious disease? • 3 reasons why stress-produced decreases in immune function may not be reflected in an increased susceptibility to infectious disease o Immune system seems to have many redundant components; thus, disruption of one of them may have little or no effect on vulnerability to infection o Stress-produced changes in immune function may be too short-lived to have substantial effects on the probability of infection o Declines in some aspects of immune function may in- duce compensatory increases in others • It is difficult to prove that stress causes increases in susceptibility to infectious diseases in humans o Only correlational studies are possible o Interpretation of such correlational is never straightforward: People may report more illness during times of stress because they expect to be more ill, because their experience of illness during times of stress is more unpleasant, or because the stress changed their behavior in ways that increased their susceptibility to infection Early Experience of Stress • Children subjected to maltreatment or other forms of severe stress display a variety of brain and endocrine system abnormalities • Early exposure to stress often increases the intensity of subsequent stress responses (e.g., increases the release of glucocorticoids in response to stressors) • The developmental period during which early stress can adversely affect neural and endocrine development begins before birth • Handling of rat pups by researchers for a few minutes per day during the first few weeks of the rats’ lives has a variety of salutary (health-promoting) effects o As adults, rats that had been handled as pups displayed smaller increases in circulating glucocorticoids in response to stressors o Liu and colleagues (1997) found that handled rat pups are groomed (licked) more by their mothers, and they hypothesized that the salutary effects of the early handling resulted from the extra grooming, rather than from the handling itself o Early separation of rat pups from their mothers seems to have effects opposite to those that result from high levels of early grooming Stress and the Hippocampus • Hippocampus appears to be particularly susceptible to stress-induced effects o Due to the dense population of glucocorticoid receptors in the hippocampus • Stress reduces dendritic branching in the hippocampus, to reduce adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus, to modify the structure of some hippocampal synapses, and to disrupt the performance of hippocampus-dependent tasks • These effects of stress on the hippocampus appear to be mediated by elevated glucocorticoid levels: o They can be induced by corticosterone (a major glucocorticoid) o Can be blocked by adrenalectomy (surgical removal of the adrenal glands)