role of stress in illness

• immunosuppression

  stress can cause illness by preventing the immune system from working efficiently and carrying out it's usual task of identifying and destroying germs and pathogens
• who did research into chronic stress

  kiecolt - glaser
• procedure of kiecolt's glaser's research

  longitudinal study where they compared the health of two groups of people - caregivers looking after people with Alzheimer and a matched group of non-caregivers
• findings of Kiecolt glaser's research

  over the 13 months the caregiver group had a weaker immune system and caught infectious diseases more than the control group

  they had higher levels of depression - 32% met the criteria for clinical depression
• cardiovascular disorders

  acute stress effects the heart muscles directly from the production of adrenaline

  repeated levels of high adrenaline have long term effects
• who did research into acute stress

  Wilbert-lampen et al
• procedure of wilbert-lampen's study

  looked at incidents of heart attacks in German football supporters during matches in the World Cup
• findings of wilbert-lampen study

  on day's when germany played cardiovascular emergencies increased by 2.66 times
• limitation of research into the role of illness in stress

  many studies are lab experiments which means they are unlike real world situations

  experiments can also have demand characteristics
• demand characteristics

  cues or signals in an experiment that hint to participants about what the experimenter's expectations are
• strength of research into the role of illness in stress

  research into stress and illness has potential real world benefits

  could lead to patients being given a stress hormone before surgery to aid recovery
• limitation into the role of stress in illness

  the effects of stress on cardiovascular disorders are mostly indirect rather than direct

  therefore, stress increases the vulnerability to CD's rather than causing them directly