stress

Question 1

stress

Answer 1

the real or perceived threat to the homeostasis of an organism, that produces a stress response, which is a series of adaptive responses designed to protect the organism

Question 2

stressor

Answer 2

The event triggering the stress response

Question 3

stress response

Answer 3

the physiological response to the stressor

Question 4

coping

Answer 4

Emotional, cognitive and/or behavioral response generated in response to a stress response

Question 5

Homeostasis

Answer 5

the range of an organism’s ability, to regulate its environment so as to maintain a stable condition

Question 6

Allostasis

Answer 6

The process of an organsim responding to a change in homeostasis

Question 7

Allogenic Load

Answer 7

Challenges that cause an organism to begin and carry out efforts to maintain stability.

Question 8

Acute stress

Answer 8

stress of immediate events that are a threat to survival or sense of wellbeing

Question 9

Chronic stress

Answer 9

unique to humans in that we create stress from things that do not immediately affect our survival

Question 10

Describe the stress bell-curve

Answer 10

Question 11

Describe the 3 stages of stress

Answer 11

**immediate response **

• Sensory information gets interpreted cognitively via neocortex and affectively integrated via limbic system
• lasts 2 to 3 seconds
• neuromuscular nervous system detects stimuli and is activated
• parasymathetic activity activated
  
  • increases heart rate, turns off digestion

intermediate response (adrenal response)

• epinepherine and norepineperine are released from the adrenal medulla (lasts 20-30 seconds)

**prolonged stress response **

• response to severe stress
• Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAC) activated
  
  • prolonged stress responsible for disease

Question 12

describe the hypothalmus-pituritary-adrenal axis

relate it to the prolonged stress response

Answer 12

• Hippocampus directs neural impulses to the hypothalamus to release corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF)
• CRF is sent to the anterior pituitary which releases adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and endorphines
• ATCH stimulates the release of glucocorticoids, cortisol and corticosterone which activate the long stress response

Question 13

describe the effects of adrenal corticosteriods

Answer 13

• Decreases effects of insulin on blood glucose
• Increases breakdown of proteins
• Decreases inflammation, immune system function and healing
• Increased glucose production
• Increased urea production
• Increased release of free fatty acids
• Increased ketone body production

Question 14

How does chronic stress affect the immune system?

Answer 14

Epinephrine and Norepinephrine

• alters circulation of leukocyte sub-populations
• decreases cytokine production and release

Glucocorticoids

• increses risk of infection by causing a shift in the type of T-helper cells the types of cytokines secreted

** cortisol secretion**

• responsible for more prolonged inhibition of cellular and humeral immune responses

Question 15

define psychoneuroimmunology

Answer 15

Investigations of the bidirectional linkages between the CNS, the endocrine system and the immune system, and the clinical implications of these linkages.

Question 16

describe cortisol’s effect on Cytokines

Answer 16

cortisol causes imunosupressant cytokines to be released, reducing the body’s ability to fight infection when an individual is exposed to longterm stress

Question 17

Describe the structures of the brain and how they activate the stress response

Answer 17

limbic system - activated by the immediate stress response and sends sensory information to the frontal cortex to evaulate the threat

Frontal cortex - evaulates the stress signal from the limbic system and determines if it is a threat or not

amygdala - transfers the signal to the hypothalamus and brainstem

• if there is no threat, amigdala activates the septal region (responsible for relaxation)

hypothalamus and brainstem - activate stress response by releasing stress hormones

Question 18

Describe the psychological apriasial response to stress?

(this is basicly the thought process occuring in the prefrontal cortex)

Answer 18

appraisal - how people determine what event is stressful

• primary appraisal – is there something to stress about
• secondary appraisal – do I have the resources to deal with the stressful event

Question 19

What are the factors that determine one’s ability to deal with stress?

Answer 19

• Outlets for attention
• Predictability of stress
• Sense of control
• Sense of whether things are worsening or improving
• Resilient/hardiness personality
  
  • Cluster of stress-buffering traits consisting
    of commitment, challenge, control
  • Hardy people are more likely to engage in positive reappraisal of stressful events

other factors

• Genetic factors, Personality features, Epigenetic factors, Neurocognitive, Disability, Maturity level, Gender, Parent/family functio, Peer network and other social support, Previous life experiences, Spirituality

Question 20

Describe some behavioral manifestations of excess stress

Answer 20

• Fatigue
• Difficult concentrating
• Detachment
• Irritability
• Anger
• Pessimism

Question 21

What are the 7 behaviors that reduce stress?

Answer 21

1. Sleep 7 to 8 hours
2. No eating between meals
3. Eat breakfast regularly
4. Maintain proper weight
5. Regular exercise
6. Moderate or no use of alcohol
7. No smoking

Question 22

What are some stress reducing-behaviors that tend to increasing stress.

Answer 22

· Smoking

· Drinking too much

· Overeating or undereating

· Zoning out for hours in front of the TV or computer

· Withdrawing from friends, family, and activities

· Using pills or drugs to relax

· Sleeping too much

· Procrastinating

· Filling up every minute of the day to avoid facing problems

· Taking out your stress on others (lashing out, angry outbursts, physical violence

Question 23

What are some diseases associated with stress?

Answer 23

• Headaches
• increased serum cholesterol levels
• Infections
  
  • Titers following vaccination with Hepatitis B and influenza were lowered in medical students taking exams, caregivers of family members with Alzheimer’s
• Cardiovascular disease
  
  • Police & Fire studies show that stress increases heart disease
• Diabetes
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Cancer
• high stress compromises immune response to cancer
• depression
• stress causes depression
  
  • associated with prolonged elevation of cortiso
• psychosomatic pain
  
  • autoimmune diseases
• stress increases morbidity in diseases like lupus

Question 24

What are the 5 R’s of Stress/anxiety?

Answer 24

Recognition of the causes and sources of the threat or distress; education and consciousness raising

Relationships identified for support, help, reassurance

Removal from (or of) the threat or stressor; managing the stimulus.

Relaxation through techniques such as meditation, massage, breathing exercises, or imagery.

Re-engagement through managed re-exposure and desensitization

Question 25

Describe problem focused coping

Answer 25

Planful Problem-Solving – analyzing the situation to arrive at solutions and then taking direct action to correct the problem.

Accepting responsibility – acknowledging one’s role in the situation while trying to put things right.

Confrontive Coping – taking assertive action, often involving dealing with others (social stresses )

Question 26

• Seeking social support – can be either problem or emotion-focused coping.
• Distancing – cognitive effort to detach
• Escape-avoidance – wishful thinking or taking action to escape or avoid it.
• Self-control – attempting to modulate one’s feelings in response to the stressor.
• Positive reappraisal – create positive meaning.
• Cognitive restructuring - altering stressful thinking

Question 27

What types of irrational thinking errors does cognative therapy help pts correct

Answer 27

• Emotional reasoning
  
  • “I feel so depressed, this must be the worse place to work in the world.”
• Overgeneralization
  
  • “I didn’t get a good grade on this test. I am a lousy student.”
• ​Catastrophic thinking
  
  • “When I get turned down when I ask for a date it means I will never be successful in love”.
• •Mind reading
  
  • “Everybody in the audience must think I’m a complete idiot up here.”
• ​Selective negative focus
  
  • seeing the negatives but missing the positive details