Lecture week 6 Flashcards
What are the effects of abuse and neglect in terms of physical health?
Poor (subjective) health perception: sick more often/ more frequent visits to doctors etc.
Diseases of ageing (disease & morbidity): Asthma, Migraine, Cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, Coronary heart disease (CHD), Diabetes, Cancer, Death, etc.
What pathways can influence health?
- Behavioral pathways
- Social pathways
- Cognitive pathways
- Emotional pathways
How does the behavioral pathway influence health?
Harmful activities: Substance abuse, obesity, suicide, high risk sexual behavior, smoking, sleep
difficulties (nightmares etc)
Wrong coping mechanisms
Tuning of corticostriatal circuits → circuit involved in self-regulation of appetitive behavior
How does the social pathway influence health?
Stressful relations
Avoidant versus intrusive styles (less social support), Revictimisation, Homelessness
Tuning of corticolimbic circuits → Childhood abuse exposure related to vigilance, distrust and hostility and increased cortisol response to social stress.
What are properties of avoidant style
Low interdependency
Low self disclosure
Low warmth
Fewer friends
What are properties of anxious/intrusive style?
Excessive need for closeness
Excessive self disclosure
Smothering
What are the health benefits of social support
- Being married or cohabiting with a significant other associated with lower rates of morbidity and mortality
- Whereas men showed significant attenuation of cortisol responses to stress when supported by their spouse or by an opposite-sex stranger, women showed a tendency toward increased cortisol responses when verbally supported by their spouse (more stress), but they showd decreased cortisol responses when there was psysical contact.
- Social support and physical contact both had dampening effects on the heart rate.
- It can play a buffering role
What is the dACC associated with?
Regulating your emotions when you are excluded. This is the same area that is associated with if you have more or less social support. People with less social support have a more activated dACC, and people with more social support have a less activated dACC.
How does the cognitive pathway influence health?
(Parental support –>)Optimism, self-esteem, mastery etc. leads to more positive thinking patterns (things will turn out fine, i can learn from this experience, etc.). This leads to healthy adjustment and longevity.
How does the emotional pathway influence health?
→ Depression predictor of coronary heart disease
→ Anger predictor of coronary artery disease and hypertension
→ Link depression/PTSD and heart disease may be mediated by
- Increased stress responses (autonomic responses, HPA-axis)
- Impact on immune system (immunosuppression)
- Lack of sleep, poor self regulation
What are telomeres and what do they do?
Telomeres protect the end of the chromosome from deterioration or from fusion with neighboring chromosomes. The chromosome ends shorten, which occurs during chromosome replication (and hence during ageing).
What can accelerate the shortening of telomeres?
Stress hormones
The length of the telomeres directly relates to the amount of stress somebody is under and the number of years that they have been under the stress.
What is telomerase?
The reverse transcriptase enzyme responsible for synthesis of telomeres.
What is the integrative model on impact of childhood abuse and mental and physical health?
Early environment and genetic predespositions + emotional functioning –> responses to threatening circumstances –> mental and physical health risks
What are properties of the biological pro-inflammatory model of early life stress?
- Higher levels of systemic inflammation (cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α)
- Larger acute stress-induced increases in inflammatory markers and pro-inflammatory responses to microbial challenges
- Resistance to inhibitory mechanisms (of cortisol) designed to dampen inflammation → when there is too much cortisol in the body, this may regulate the inflammatory response. This feedback is not working well in people who experience a lot of stress.
