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11 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is tuberculosis? |
A bacterial infection that results in chronic cough, can be very contagious, and be passed airborne. |
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How did Holmes et al test the link between psychological stress and susceptibility totuberculosis? Describe the details of the study. Who did they test? What did they measure?What were the conditions? What did they find? What does it mean? What were thelimitations of the study? |
20 people with TB, and 20 without but in a similar environment Holmes used a suvey to gather data on the overall moods within people of both groups He found that TB individuals had higher rates in all the different types of stressors He concluded that psychological stress was associated with susceptibility to infectious disease Limitation: association does not mean causation, could be that TB caused the psychological stress |
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How does psychological stress turn on the stress response? |
the amygdala activates the hypothalamus to initiate the SAM and HPA responses to stress |
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When is psychological stress good and when is it bad? |
Psychological stress is good in acute conditions; it can make us more prepared Psychological stress is bad in chronic terms; it can lead to allostatic load and a heightened amygdala |
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How does the activation of the amygdala change in response to chronic stress? Anxiety? What impact does this have on the stress system? |
The amygdala becomes more and more heightened/sensitive and the fear response will get easier and easier to trigger. |
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What are cytokines? |
important signaling molecules in the innate immune system |
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What are Th1 and Th2 cells? |
They are both cytokines that are important in the adaptive immune response |
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How does a chronic psychological stressor impact the immune system? Does this impact total white blood cell count? Why or why not? |
Epinephrine and cortisol in the lymph nodes can alter the balance of Th1 to Th2. This does not affect total white blood cell count because only the ratio of Th1 to Th2 is affected. |
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How did Cohen et al test the link between psychological stress and susceptibility to viral infection? Describe the details of the study. Who did they test? What did they measure? What were the conditions? What did they find? What does it mean? What were the limitations of the study? |
Looked at 420 healthy adults who were all given a nasal drop with a respiratory virus Wanted to see how psychological stress affected susceptibility to infection. Mainly looked at white blood count levels Found that there was an association between psychological stress levels and susceptibility to infection, but it could not be explained with the total white blood cell count. |
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How did Kang and Fox test the link between psychological stress and susceptibility to viral infection? Describe the details of the study. Who did they test? What did they measure? What were the conditions? What did they find? What does it mean? What were the limitations of the study? |
24 University students Looked at psychological stress and types of cytokines in the blood Found that during exam season (a stressful time), TF2 levels were much higher and TF1 levels were much lower. This explained why psychological stress was associated with susceptibility to infectious disease. Even though TWB count was the same, TH1 and TH2 were in different proportions. TF1 Cytokines are generally responsible for immune protection against viruses, bacteria, and cancer; lower levels of TF1 will increase susceptibility to infectious diseases.
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Contrast Type 1 (Th1) and type 2 (Th2) cytokines. What role do they play in immune function? What happens to the immune response when there is too little or too much of either Th1 or Th2 cytokines? How does chronic stress impact Th1/Th2 cytokines and your susceptibility to various diseases? |
Th1: cell-mediated immunity; immune protection against viruses, bacteria, and cancer Th2: humoral (extracellular) immunity); immune protection against parasites and malaria too much Th1: autoimmunity too little Th1: higher susceptibility to bacteria, viruses, and cancer too much Th2: allergies too little Th2: risk of parasites and malaria Chronic stress increases levels of Th2 and decreases levels of Th1 |
