Chapter 10: Stress And Disease

Question 0

Stressors

Answer 0

Anything that demands a response in order to maintain homeostasis
-noxious: pain, cold, trauma, hunger, electric shock
Not noxious: life events (wedding,death in the family)

Question 1

Stress

Answer 1

A person experiences stress when a demand exceeds a persons coping abilities, resulting in reactions such as disturbances of cognition, emotion and behavior that can adversely affect well-being

Question 2

General Adaptive Response

Answer 2

Alarm stage
-initial exposure to stressor
-flight or fight response
-action of the sympathetic division of the autonomic system
-catecholamines
Resistance stage
-stress lasts longer than a few hrs
-hormones involved are cortisol, growth hormone and thyroid hormones
Exhaustion stage
-progressive breakdown of compensatory mechanisms
-occurs only if stress continues and adaptation is not successful: onset of disease
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis system

Question 3

Psychological Mediators of Stress

Answer 3

Reactive response: a physiological response derives from psychological stressors
Anticipatory response: stressor. It yet present but body responds in anticipation
Conditional response: involves learning, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Question 4

Psychoneuroimmunologic Mediators

Answer 4

Immune related disease is multifactorial and depends on the interaction of the among the psychosocial, emotional, genetic, neurological, endocrine and immune system

Question 5

Biological mediators

Answer 5

Hypothalamus releases corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH)
CRH induces adrenal glands to secrete cortisol
Cortisol decreases cellular immunity(cytotoxic T cells) and increase humoral immunity(production of antibodies)