Stress - Role of stress in illness

• Immunosuppression


  Suppression of the immune system, can't fight off infections
• Immediate short-term stressors


  Lead to adrenaline production
• Ongoing (long-term) stressors


  Can result in cortisol production
• Adrenaline and cortisol production

  Can be linked with cardiovascular disease and immunosuppression
• Immediate Stress


  1. Leads to adrenaline and cardiovascular disorders

  2. Activates the sympathetic branch of the SNS

  3. Leads to adrenaline and noradrenaline production
• High levels of adrenaline

  • Increased heart rate causes the heart to work harder
  • Blood vessels constrict which increases blood pressure
  • Increased pressure can dislodge plaques on the walls of blood vessels, leading to blocked arteries, heart attack or stroke
• Williams et al conducted a key study into cardiovascular disorders, wanted to investigate if anger was linked to heart disease
• Williams et al procedure

  1. Around 13,00 people completed a 10-question anger scale

  2. None of the participants suffered from heart disease

  3. Six years later, the health of the participants was checked again and 256 of them experienced heart attacks
• Williams et al's results suggest that SNS arousal is closely associated with cardiovascular disorder
• Ongoing stressors


  1. Activate the HPA system

  2. Lead to cortisol production

  3. Can lead to reducing the body's immune response making it more likely that a person becomes ill
• Kiecolt-Glaser conducted a key study into whether stress of important examinations led to an effect on immune system functioning
• Kiecolt Glaser procedure


  1. 75 medical students took part

  2. Blood samples were taken 1 month before their exams (lower stress) and during the exam period itself (ongoing high stress)

  3. They assessed the blood for immune system functioning, by measuring NK natural killer, cell activity

  4. Participants also completed a questionnaire, the SRRS to measure other life stressors, and a loneliness scale
• A03 Point 1


  There is a large body of research support for stress being linked to cardiovascular disease, for example Sheps et al.
• Sheps study


  1. Focused research on volunteers with ischaemia – reduced blood flow to the heart

  2. Gave 173 men and women a variety of psychological tests such as public speaking

  3. Found that their blood pressure soared dramatically in half of them

  4. Some sections of left ventricle muscle began to beat erratically

  5. Out of those who experienced those heartbeats 44% died within 4 years
• A03 Point 2


  Exposure to stress and cardiovascular outcomes are usually often based on self-report, ie in questionnaires like in Williams's study
• These self-report methods need to be treated carefully, as if an individual has a greater tendency towards negative perceptions, this can lead to exaggerated scores on both measures
• This can lead to a correlation being more likely, and that self report measures can produce unjustified association between stress and cardiovascular symptoms
• A03 Point 3


  Research has shown consistent gender differences in the stress/immune system relationship
• Kiecolt Glaser found that


  • Women show more hormonal and immunological changes in how they act to marital conflict
• Miller et al. found that

  • Stress has a greater effect on the immune system functioning in old people
• Individual differences need to be considered before we can talk about how stress affects the cardiovascular and immune system
• A03 Point 4


  Lazarus suggests that health is affected by many different factors including genetic influence and lifestyle etc, so how much variance can be explained by stress
• Lazarus also suggests that health is generally stable and slow to change, which makes it difficult to demonstrate that exposure to a particular stressor can cause a change in health
• Because a lot of research is short term it doesn't inform us of the real long-term consequences of stress on illness
• Limitation as many reasons can affect health; hard to establish a simple causal relationship