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Psychological stress in humans and susceptibility to the common cold.
Abstract
It is not known whether psychological stress suppresses host resistance to infection. To investigate this issue, we prospectively studied the relation between psychological stress and the frequency of documented clinical colds among subjects intentionally exposed to respiratory viruses.
After completing questionnaires assessing degrees of psychological stress, 394 healthy subjects were given nasal drops containing one of five respiratory viruses (rhinovirus type 2, 9, or 14, respiratory syncytial virus, or coronavirus type 229E), and an additional 26 were given saline nasal drops. The subjects were then quarantined and monitored for the development of evidence of infection and symptoms. Clinical colds were defined as clinical symptoms in the presence of an infection verified by the isolation of virus or by an increase in the virus-specific antibody titer.
The rates of both respiratory infection (P less than 0.005) and clinical colds (P less than 0.02) increased in a dose-response manner with increases in the degree of psychological stress. Infection rates ranged from approximately 74 percent to approximately 90 percent, according to levels of psychological stress, and the incidence of clinical colds ranged from approximately 27 percent to 47 percent. These effects were not altered when we controlled for age, sex, education, allergic status, weight, the season, the number of subjects housed together, the infectious status of subjects sharing the same housing, and virus-specific antibody status at base line (before challenge). Moreover, the associations observed were similar for all five challenge viruses. Several potential stress-illness mediators, including smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, diet, quality of sleep, white-cell counts, and total immunoglobulin levels, did not explain the association between stress and illness. Similarly, controls for personality variables (self-esteem, personal control, and introversion-extraversion) failed to alter our findings.
Psychological stress was associated in a dose-response manner with an increased risk of acute infectious respiratory illness, and this risk was attributable to increased rates of infection rather than to an increased frequency of symptoms after infection.
... The public health consequences of compromised cellular immunity are significant. Depressed and stressed individuals are more vulnerable to infection [120], show reduced immunogenic responses to vaccines, acutely [121], and may even lose humoral immunity more rapidly in cases where the onset of depression occurs many years after vaccination [122]. In a similar vein, depression also predicts greater mortality in cancer patients [123]. ...
... They also promote a tolerogenic environment by facilitating the differentiation of naïve T-cells into regulatory T-cells (T reg ) [186] and the development of autoreactive B-cells [187]. This suppression of adaptive immune function has clinical consequences, including increased vulnerability to infectious disease, deficient vaccine-induced immunogenicity, and tumor escape [120][121][122] (reader's right, blue arrows) homeostasis, and the expenditure of energy [128]. Macrophages in particular accumulate and shift to a proinflammatory state as fat levels increase, theoretically leading to the preferential production of neurotoxic KP metabolites. ...
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an established risk factor for the development of psychiatric disorders, especially depression and anxiety. Yet the mechanistic pathways underlying this risk remain unclear, limiting treatment options and hindering the identification of clinically-useful biomarkers. One salient pathophysiological process implicated in both primary psychiatric disorders and TBI is inflammation. An important consequence of inflammation is the increased breakdown of tryptophan to kynurenine and, subsequently, the metabolism of kynurenine into several neuroactive metabolites including the neurotoxic NMDA receptor agonist, quinolinic acid (QuinA), and the neuroprotective NMDA receptor antagonist, kynurenic acid (KynA). Here, we review studies of the kynurenine pathway (KP) in TBI and examine their potential clinical implications. The weight of the literature suggests that there is increased production of neurotoxic kynurenines such as QuinA in TBI of all severities, and that elevated QuinA concentrations in both the cerebrospinal fluid and blood are a negative prognostic indicator, being associated with death, MRI abnormalities, increased depressive and anxiety symptoms, and prolonged recovery. We hypothesize that an imbalance in KP metabolism is also one molecular pathway through which the TBI-induced neurometabolic cascade may predispose to the development of psychiatric sequelae. If this model is correct, KP metabolites could serve to predict who is likely to develop psychiatric illness while drugs that target the KP could help to prevent or treat depression and anxiety arising in the context of TBI.
... Crucially, individuals who fail to buffer the long-term exposure of distress are vulnerable to a variety of negative health outcomes, including poor physical health, morbidity, and mortality 19,34 . More dramatically, chronic psychological stress has been related to lower immunity and, as a result, higher susceptibility of the common cold, influenza, infectious diseases and upper respiratory illness 35 36 . Reducing distress should therefore be key in policy-making aiming to safeguard public health, and even more so during repeated lockdowns that accumulate stressors into constant emotional exhaustion. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic and the mitigation measures by governments have upended the economic and social lives of many, leading to widespread psychological distress. We explore heterogeneity in trajectories of psychological distress during the pandemic in the United Kingdom and relate this heterogeneity to socio-demographic and health factors. We analyze nine waves of longitudinal, nationally representative survey data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study ( $$N=15{,}914$$ N = 15 , 914 ), covering the period from early 2020 to mid-2021. First, latent class mixture modelling is used to identify trajectories of psychological distress. Second, associations of the trajectories with covariates are tested with multinomial logistic regressions. We find four different trajectories of distress: continuously low, temporarily elevated, repeatedly elevated, and continuously elevated distress. Nearly two fifths of the population experienced severely elevated risks of distress during the pandemic. Long-term distress was highest among younger people, women, people living without a partner, those who had no work or lost income, and those with previous health conditions or COVID-19 symptoms. Given the threat of persistent stress on health, policy measures should be sensitized to the unintended yet far-reaching consequences of non-pharmaceutical interventions.
... Interpretation of psychological factors in near-death asthma has been limited by retrospective assessment because increases in anxiety or denial may be the result, and not the cause, of these severe asthma exacerbations (Strunk, Nicklas, Milgrom & Ikle, 1999). A classical study of 388 asthmatic children in Cardiff, Wales, focused that the children could be divided into groups according to the causes of their attacks ( Cohen, Tyreli & Smith, 1991). As shown in table below: Table 1 Relative importance of allergic, infective and psychological factors in the etiology of asthma Source: Abnormal psychology by Sarason & Sarason, 1995, 3rd Ed. ...
The present study has examined stress and anxiety in relation to asthma. Data were collected from 140 adults of which 70 were asthma patients and 70 people who don't have a history of asthma complaints. Samples were selected from Dhaka city by using the purposive sampling technique. The Life Stress Questionnaire (Cohen, 1999), translated Bangla version by Fahim (2001) was used to measure the individual's stress and an Anxiety Scale for the Bangladeshi population was developed by Deeba & Begum (2004) was used to measure anxiety of the same respondents. Simple regression and correlation analysis indicated that stress and anxiety had a significant positive correlation with asthma. Asthma has been found as the most important predictor which explained 47.7% variance of stress and 40.8% variance of anxiety of respondents.
Reference
Tany, R.F., & Saha, A.K. (2017). A Study on Stress and Anxiety in Relation to Asthma. Journal of Psychosocial Research, 12(1), 117-126.
... • Psychological stress could be a bias. Psychological stress is a situation in which frequent infections in patients are found [129][130][131][132][133]. GTS is often associated with a certain level of psychological stress, for example, through OCD or other anxiety disorder comorbidities [2,134]. ...
Introduction
The neurobiology of Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) is known to involve cortico-striatal loops possibly under genetic control. Less is known about possible environmental triggers of GTS. Specifically, immune-related events following possible environmental inducers have been evoked, but important controversies still exist.
Objectives
In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we then aimed to look for evidence in favor of such possibilities.
Method
We performed a systematic review and meta analysis of all immunological data in PubMed.
Results
We found large discrepancies concerning immune dysfunctions in GTS and meta-analyzing cytokines data did not allow us to conclude to an involvement of specific cytokines in GTS neurobiology. When looking specifically to the PANDAS/PANS entity, we found some important evidence of a possible infectious involvement but in limited number of studies. Our meta-analysis found an increased level of anti-streptolysin O antibodies in GTS patients, but level of anti-DNase B antibodies was not increased.
Conclusions
Too many questions still exist to allow us to definitively reach the conclusion that there is an infectious and immunological etiology in GTS. Much work is still needed to elucidate the possible role of immunology in GTS neurobiology and to favor immunological treatment rather than classical treatment.
... Stress detection is a classification task that predicts whether a certain target is under stress. The task has drawn research attention for two reasons: first, stress detection plays an important role in applications related to psychological well-being (Cohen et al., 1991), cognitive behavior therapies (Tull et al., 2007), and safe driving (Gao et al., 2014;Chen et al., 2017); second, stress is a known regulator of human emotion mechanisms (Tull et al., 2007), and thus research on stress detection can potentially benefit the development of emotionally intelligent agents. ...
... Psychological stress has been shown to contribute directly to decreased functional immunity, as measured by proliferative response to mitogens and natural killer cell activity (Herbert and Cohen, 1993). Psychological life stress has been shown to be related to increased susceptibility to illness (Cohen et al. 1991;Clark et al. 1996), and duration o f illness (Boyce et al. 1977). Even short term laboratory tests o f psychological stressors (i.e. ...
Growth retardation (stunting) is a major public health problem in developing countries, where 38% of children under 5 years old are short for their age, and many have poor levels of mental development along with behavioural abnormalities. Animal research suggests that an altered stress response may contribute to the negative outcomes associated with undernutrition. This dissertation research investigated the associations of stunting, stress physiology (hypothalamic-adrenal and autonomic nervous system activity) and behaviour. Study 1 compared 30 stunted children with 24 non-stunted children, all of whom were participants in a prospective, longitudinal case-control study of children who were stunted in early childhood. Study 2 compared 31 stunted children with 31 non-stunted children, all of whom were newly recruited for the study. All children in both studies were 8-10 years old and lived in the same poor areas of Kingston, Jamaica. A test session of physiological and physical stressors was administered, and baseline and response levels of salivary cortisol, heart rate, and urinary catecholamines (epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine) were measured. Behaviours were observed during an interview and frustrating task. As compared with the non-stunted children, stunted children had significantly higher salivary cortisol levels, heart rates, and urinary epinephrine levels. Stunted children also vocalized less, were more inhibited, less attentive, and more frustrated than non-stunted children. After controlling for birthweight or social background, maternal and child IQ, the differences in cortisol level, heart rate, epinephrine, and inhibition remained significant. Study 3 compared 64 stunted with 64 non-stunted school-children from the same poor areas of Kathmandu, Nepal. A modified version of the Jamaican test session was administered, and levels of cortisol and heart rate were measured during testing and also during a baseline. Stunted Nepali children showed a blunted physiological response to psychological stressors, but were not different from the non-stunted children in baseline measures. These findings suggest that childhood growth retardation is associated with changes in physiological arousal, and that the relationship may be mediated by several socio-cultural, environmental, and physical variables.
... Capturing stress during the pandemic is essential as high levels of stress can cause insulin resistance and obesity (Räikkönen et al., 1996) and moderately increase the risks of coronary heart disease (Richardson et al., 2012), all of whom raise risks of dying from coronavirus (ONS, 2020b). High stress increases susceptibility to five acute infectious respiratory diseases, including the coronavirus type 229E (Cohen et al., 1991(Cohen et al., , 1993, emphasizing the need to capture its magnitude in the community during the pandemic. ...
Social support gained through community ties has been pivotal in dealing with stressful
events. A cross-sectional
community sample (N = 2,329) was gathered to assess
community cohesion buffering against heath anxiety and perceived stress during the
first peak of the pandemic in the UK, using structural equation modeling analyses.
Community cohesion acted as a protective mechanism against both health anxiety
and stress during the first national lockdown. A strong positive association was also
found between health anxiety and stress. Stress and health anxiety scores peaked in
the first weeks of the imposed quarantine; as the lockdown was extended, participants
reported lower stress, health anxiety and community cohesion scores. The reduction
of community cohesion scores was greater for those younger than 45 while
the positive association between stress and health anxiety was stronger among males
during the lockdown. While community cohesion effects against health anxiety were
enhanced for females, community's buffering against stress were greater for males.
Strengthening citizens' psychological sense of community through the publicization
and support of local initiatives and mutual-aid
groups and utilizing methodically green
(and blue) spaces to boost neighborhood attraction might be viable strategies within
which stress and health anxiety can be suppressed. Conversely, allowing community,
regional and national cracks to deepen can exacerbate the impact of stressful events
experienced during the COVID-19
pandemic.
... Chronic stressors cause a decrease in almost all functional immune measures as a result of chronically high levels of cortisol [105]. This increases an individual's susceptibility to infection [106,107], delays wound healing [108], and impairs the immune response to vaccination [109][110][111]. The degree to which cortisol suppresses the immune system may vary depending on the duration of the stressor [105]. ...
Thirty-six species of canid exist globally, two are classified as critically endangered, three as endangered, and five as near threatened. Human expansion and the coinciding habitat fragmentation necessitate conservation interventions to mitigate concurrent population deterioration. The current conservation management of wild canids includes animal translocation and artificial pack formation. These actions often cause chronic stress, leading to increased aggression and the suppression of the immune and reproductive systems. Castration and pharmaceutical treatments are currently used to reduce stress and aggression in domestic and captive canids. The undesirable side effects make such treatments inadvisable during conservation management of wild canids. Pheromones are naturally occurring chemical messages that modulate behaviour between conspecifics; as such, they offer a natural alternative for behaviour modification. Animals are able to distinguish between pheromones of closely related species through small compositional differences but are more likely to have greater responses to pheromones from individuals of the same species. Appeasing pheromones have been found to reduce stress- and aggression-related behaviours in domestic species, including dogs. Preliminary evidence suggests that dog appeasing pheromones (DAP) may be effective in wild canids. However, the identification and testing of species-specific derivatives could produce more pronounced and beneficial behavioural and physiological changes in target species. In turn, this could provide a valuable tool to improve the conservation management of many endangered wild canids.
Pregnancy represents a critical time during which women are increasingly susceptible to challenges that can shape maternal health postpartum. Given the increasing number of women who are working through the duration of their pregnancies, in this study, we examine the extent to which both maternal psychological and physical health are influenced by social support received at work during pregnancy. Specifically, we examine 118 pregnant employees’ perceptions of coworker support, supervisor support, and stress over the course of 15 working days. We then link prenatal stress levels with postpartum maternal health outcomes following women’s return to work. At the within-person level, coworker support predicted next-day decreases in stress during pregnancy; however, stress did not predict next-day change in coworker support. There was no relationship between supervisor support and next-day change in stress during pregnancy or vice versa. At the between-person level, an interactive effect between coworker support and supervisor support emerged in predicting prenatal stress, such that women who benefitted from supportive coworkers and supportive supervisors during pregnancy reported the lowest levels of prenatal stress which were, in turn, associated with lower incidence of postpartum depression and quicker recovery times from birth-related injuries. Significant indirect effects suggested that when perceptions of supervisor support were higher (but not lower), coworker support during pregnancy predicted lower incidence of postpartum depression and quicker recovery times through reduced prenatal stress. Taken together, our findings provide novel insight into how specific aspects of the workplace environment may interact to shape maternal psychological and physical health during pregnancy and postpartum.
Stress-induced changes in viral receptor and susceptibility gene expression were measured in embryonic stem cells (ESC) and differentiated progeny. Rex1 promoter-Red Fluorescence Protein reporter ESC were tested by RNAseq after 72hr exposures to control stress hyperosmotic sorbitol under stemness culture (NS) to quantify stress-forced differentiation (SFD) transcriptomic programs. Control ESC cultured with stemness factor removal produced normal differentiation (ND). Bulk RNAseq transcriptomic analysis showed significant upregulation of two genes involved in Covid-19 cell uptake, Vimentin (VIM) and Transmembrane Serine Protease 2 (TMPRSS2). SFD increased the hepatitis A virus receptor (Havcr1) and the transplacental Herpes simplex 1 (HSV1) virus receptor (Pvrl1) compared with ESC undergoing ND. Several other coronavirus receptors, Glutamyl Aminopeptidase (ENPEP) and Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4 (DPP4) were upregulated significantly in SFD>ND. Although stressed ESC are more susceptible to infection due to increased expression of viral receptors and decreased resistance, the necessary Covid-19 receptor, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE)2, was not expressed in our experiments. TMPRSS2, ENPEP, and DPP4 mediate Coronavirus uptake, but are also markers of extra-embryonic endoderm (XEN), which arise from ESC undergoing ND or SFD. Mouse and human ESCs differentiated to XEN increase TMPRSS2 and other Covid-19 uptake-mediating gene expression, but only some lines express ACE2. Covid-19 susceptibility appears to be genotype-specific and not ubiquitous. Of the 30 gene ontology (GO) groups for viral susceptibility, 15 underwent significant stress-forced changes. Of these, 4 GO groups mediated negative viral regulation and most genes in these increase in ND and decrease with SFD, thus suggesting that stress increases ESC viral susceptibility. Taken together, the data suggest that a control hyperosmotic stress can increase Covid-19 susceptibility and decrease viral host resistance in mouse ESC. However, this limited pilot study should be followed with studies in human ESC, tests of environmental, hormonal, and pharmaceutical stressors and direct tests for infection of stressed, cultured ESC and embryos by Covid-19.
Graphical Abstract
Proposes that individual differences in perceived control be partitioned into components associated with 3 primary spheres of behavior: (a) personal efficacy (control over the nonsocial environment as in personal achievement), (b) interpersonal control (control over other people in dyads and groups), and (c) sociopolitical control (control over social and political events and institutions). Assessment instruments are presented for measuring perceived control in each of these 3 spheres. Using data from 87 undergraduates, a 3-factor structural model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis, and the results are strongly supportive. The scales have impressive convergent and discriminant validity in relation to other individual difference measures. Evidence from several laboratory and field studies by the author and colleagues (e.g., see record
1981-01340-001) is reviewed to support the predictive validity of the 3 scales. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examined the hypothesis that self-esteem is a multidimensional construct—as suggested by R. Shavelson et al (see record
1978-30429-001)—via the scores of 106 undergraduates on a modified Feelings of Inadequacy Scale. Three factors were found and labeled Social Confidence, School Abilities, and Self-Regard. These are comparable to 3 of the 4 dimensions discussed by Shavelson et al. Correlations of total self-esteem with measures of several other constructs were consistent with findings from previous studies; however, the correlations of the factors with these variables revealed that factors were differentially related to the constructs in some cases. Findings support a hierarchical conceptualization of self-esteem. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated the structure of intra-individual mood (P-factors) for the presence of 2 dimensions of self-reported current mood—Positive and Negative Affect—found previously in interindividual R-factor analyses (A. Tellegen, 1980). 23 undergraduates completed a 60-item mood adjective checklist for 90 consecutive days. Quantitative comparisons of each S's 1st 2 rotated P-factors to the R-factor dimensions resulted in the identification of the 2 dimensions for 21 Ss, underscoring the congruence of the 2-dimensional structure identified within and across Ss. The belief that the idiographic study of individuals, rather than being antithetical to scientific psychology, can provide information of value and relevance to nomothetic description was basic to the investigation. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The following review could easily be subtitled “What every grandmother knows.” We have all been told at one time or another that if we get stressed, we are likely to get sick. The stressors, which our grandmothers knew so well, may be physical (“Don’t go out in the rain without your boots on!”) or psychological (“When the stork brought your little sister, he didn’t know that she would break your favorite truck!”). This chapter deals specifically with psychosocial factors that have been reported to contribute to the onset or the exacerbation of infectious disease. A part of the present volume considers how behavior is modified by infectious agents. In contrast, this chapter discusses how behavioral variables influence the course of infectious disease. The following review is intended to reflect the nature and complexity of a large and growing area of research rather than to be an exhaustive compendium.