Chapter 7: Psychological Factors Affecting Medical Conditions Flashcards
What is the dualistic view of mind and body?
- mind and body are separate entities governed by different laws
- not used nowadays, hence why psychophysiological has been replaced with psychosomatic
What is behavioural medicine?
- application of methods of behaviour modification to the treatment or prevention of disease
- i.e. psychological techniques to reduce pain in patients undergoing medical procedures
What is health psychology?
- any application of psychological methods and theories to understand the origins of disease, individual responses to disease, and the determinants of good health
Compare illness and disease.
- illness marked by symptoms (subjective reports)
- disease marked by signs (objective indications)
○ lesions are disturbance of bodily tissue
What is the “psychological factors affecting other medical conditions” category?
- people who suffer or experience medical conditions apart from mental disorders, but whose medical conditions are evidently affected in one of several ways by psychological factors
What is the endocrine system?
- organs that manufacture biologically active substances called hormones and, when the occasion is right, secrete these substances in the bloodstream
What is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis?
- hypothalamus is activated
- pituitary gland secretes substance called adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) into the circulation
- ACTH targets adrenal cortex, located above kidneys, which secrete cortisol (stress hormone)
- cortisol elevates blood sugar and increases metabolism, allowing for sustained activity
- also suppresses inflammation, mobilizes glucose in liver, etc.
- DEFENCE MECHANISM
What are the consequences of prolonged gluticocortoid response?
- suppress immune system function
- enhance development of atherosclerosis
- contribute to neuronal damage in the brain
- increased fat storage
What is the autonomic nervous system?
- responsive to psychosocial influences
- operates out of conscious control
- includes sympathetic and parasympathetic branches
What is the difference between the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine system in their effects?
- endocrine effects rely on bloodstream to convey hormones to target organs
- ANS based on nervous conduction
What is the sympathetic branch of the ANS?
- nerve fibres emanating from thoracic and lumbar regions of spinal cord
- when aroused tend to mobilize body for immediate action, e.g., increased blood pressure, heart rate, and perspiration and decreased digestive activity
What is the parasympathetic branch of the ANS?
- nerve fibres emanating from cranial and sacral regions of spinal cord
- “braking” system, returns body to homeostasis
What are the three general categories of immune responses?
- non-specific immune responses
- cellular immunity
- humoral immunity
What is nonspecific immune response?
- circulating white cells (granulocytes and monocytes) indentify invading antigens and destroy them
What is cellular immunity?
- based on action of blood cells (T-lymphocytes) produced in Thymus gland
- variety of cells that attack foreign or mutated cells directly (killer/K), inhibit actions of helper cells and natural killer cells (suppressor), and permanently alter structure and stored in case of another attack (memory
○ controlled by lymphokines
What is humoral immunity?
- invading antigens are presented by macrophages to B-lymphocytes, causing them to reproduce
- either store cells for later use or secrete immunoglobins that neutralize antigens
What is psychoneuroimmunology?
- study of mind-brain-immunesystem interactions
- research in field has found immune system can be affected by learning experiences, emotional states, and personal characteristics
What are the three ways the term “stress” can be used?
- refer to a stimulus, or property of the external world
- refer to a response
- refer to a transaction that mediates stimulus and response
What is the general adaptation syndrome (GAS)?
- proposed by Hans Selye
- first formal description of stress
- stereotyped pattern of bodily changes that occur in response to diverse challenges to the organism
- involve three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion
What did Selye define stress as?
- consequence of adaptation to demands placed on body
What is the first phase of general adaptation syndrome?
- alarm
- body mobilizes defences
What is the second phase of general adaptation syndrome?
- resistance
- body actively copes with challenge through immune and neuroendocrine changes which enhance body’s ability to ward off threats
What is the third phase of general adaptation syndrome?
- exhaustion
- energy is depleted and resistance can no longer be maintained
What is the transactional model of stress?
- proposed by Richard Lazarus
- conceives of stress as a property of neither stimulus nor response but rather as an ongoing series of transactions between an individual and their environment
- central idea, people constantly evaluate what is going on around them
