The role of Stress in illness Flashcards
What is immunosupression?
Stress can cause illness by preventing the immune system from working efficiently and carrying out its usual tasks.
What was Kielcolt-Glaser’s Research into immunosupression?
He examined 75 students taking medical exams.
The participants had to give a blood sample twice one month before the exam and one on the day of the exam.They also completed a questionnaire measuring the sources of stress.
Finding: The activity of killer T cells decreased between the first and second blood sample, evidence of the immune system being suppressed.
What was Kiel-colt Glaser’s 2nd research into immunosupression?
He carried out a longitudinal study in which they compared the health of two groups of people:
Caregivers looking after a relative with Alzheimers and a matched group of non-caregivers.
They found that over a period of 13 months, the caregivers showed a weaker cell- based immune response.
Evaluation of immunosupression.
Limitation: Some psychologist looked into rats and their ability to cope with stress, they found that when the rat were subjected to an acute stressor, they had a huge rush of lymphocytes into their blood stream.
This shows that the acute stress may not have the same impact on immunosupression than chronic stress.
Strength:
Students who took a relaxation training programme seriously had a better immune system during an exam period that a control group.
Explain cardiovascular disorders and stress.
Stress may contribute to CVD such as heart disease and strokes.
Acute stress leads to the production of adrenaline which affects the heat muscles directly.
Acute stress research
Lampen- Looked at incidences of heart attacks in German football supporters during matches played at the 1996 world cup.
On the days that Germany were playing, cardiac emergencies increased by 2.66 times.
Chronic stress research
Yusuf- INTERHEART study.
This was an investigation involving 52 countries, to identify major risk factors for CVDs across different cultures.
They compared 15,000 people who had a heart attack with a simiar number of people who had not.
Found several chronic stressors with a strong link to heart attacks, including workplace stress and stressful life events.
Evaluation of CVD linking to stress.
Song- Identified more than 130,000 people with stress-related disorders.
Compared with controls, people with stress related disorders had a 64% greater risk of a CVD in the first year after diagnosis.
