Familial resemblance for hostility: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Family Heart Study

Aggravating conditions: cynical hostility and neighborhood ambient stressors

This study is the first to investigate neighborhood clustering of a personality trait--cynical hostility (a sense of mistrust of others amplified by suspicious antagonism.) Cynical hostility increases physiological reactivity by influencing appraisal and coping when stressful events occur and that has been well established as a predictor of cardiovascular disease, inflammation, and all-cause mortality. The analysis examines the associations of a variety of neighborhood physical and social conditions (especially ambient stressors) with individual cynical hostility, controlling for individual sociodemographics. Data are from the Chicago Community Adult Health Survey, a clustered population-based study of 3105 adults. Variation by neighborhood in cynical hostility is larger than variation of other selected health outcomes, which are commonly studied using ecological methods or for other personality measures. Controlling for neighborhood context reduces the black/white cynical hostility disparity by one-third. A measure of neighborhood ambient stressors (notably noise) significantly predicts cynical hostility, even after individual characteristics are controlled, and the effect size is larger than for other contextual predictors. Health-related psychosocial and personality traits may both cluster in and be influenced by contemporaneous neighborhoods rather than mere exogenous results of genes or early life conditions. Health-relevant psychosocial characteristics may also mediate effects of neighborhood deleterious physical conditions, thereby influencing downstream health outcomes and social disparities therein. Because residential location and neighborhood physical conditions are both modifiable, research on how ambient stressors influence health psychology may be particularly fruitful for health policy and practice.

Is brachial artery flow-mediated dilation associated with negative affect?

BACKGROUND

Trait negative affect has been implicated as a risk marker for cardiovascular disease, but the mechanisms underlying this association are uncertain.

PURPOSE

Our aim was to examine associations between trait measures of anger, hostility, depression, and anxiety with endothelial dysfunction via brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD), an early indicator of cardiovascular disease.

METHOD

FMD was examined in 332 healthy older adults. Measures included Beck Anxiety and Depression Inventories, Cook-Medley Hostility Scale, and Spielberger State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (Anger In, Anger Out, and Trait Anger).

RESULTS

Mean age was 60.5 +/- 4.8 years; 83% of participants were Caucasian and 49% were female. FMD was greater in women compared to men (6.17% vs. 4.07%, p < 0.001). Women reported significantly greater Anxiety (p < 0.001), and men reported greater Hostility (p = 0.004). In separate multivariable linear regression models controlling for cardiovascular risk factors, plus current hormone therapy for women, smaller FMD was associated with higher Anger In for women (beta = -0.222, p = 0.04) and showed a trend with higher Hostility for men (beta = -0.082, p = 0.09).

CONCLUSION

Endothelial dysfunction, as indicated by less vasodilatation of the brachial artery, is positively associated with measures of hostility and anger suppression in healthy older adults. Thus, associations between negative affect and cardiovascular health may be apparent early in the disease process.

Infant growth and hostility in adult life

OBJECTIVE

Hostility may confer a risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality, but why is uncertain. A common origin in suboptimal fetal and early postnatal life may lie beneath. This study tested whether prenatal and postnatal growth predicts hostility in adult life.

METHODS

Women (n = 939) and men (n = 740) born in Helsinki, Finland, from 1934 through 1944 filled out the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale at an average age of 63.4 years. Growth was estimated from birth, child welfare clinic, and school records. Adult body size was measured in a clinic.

RESULTS

Men and women who had higher levels of hostility in adulthood were born lighter and thinner, showed slower weight gain from birth to 6 months of age, were lighter throughout childhood (standardized regression coefficients (beta) <-0.05; 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), -0.14 to -0.00; p values <.05), but were heavier in adulthood (beta values > 0.06; 95% CIs, 0.02-0.14; p values <.01). They were also shorter from 6 months until the age of 1 year (beta values <-0.09; 95% CIs, -0.14 to -0.03; p values <.003), and tended to be shorter in adulthood (beta = -0.05; 95% CI, -0.09 to 0.00; p = .06). The latter effects were largely attributable to slower growth in stature from birth to 6 months (beta = -0.08; 95% CI, -0.14 to -0.02; p = .005). The associations were not explained by major confounders.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study suggests that slow prenatal and infant growth is linked with hostility in adult life.

Association between serotonin transporter availability and hostility scores in healthy volunteers - a single photon emission computed tomography study with [(123)I] ADAM

The present study examined the relationship between serotonin transporter (SERT) availability and hostility scores in healthy volunteers. SERT availability was measured by using SPECT with [(123)I] ADAM in 10 healthy participants. Hostility was measured with the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale. Hostile attribution, but not the other subscales of hostility, was negatively correlated with SERT availability. Central serotoninergic activities may play a role in hostility.

Anger expression and pain: an overview of findings and possible mechanisms

A tendency to manage anger via direct expression (anger-out) is increasingly recognized as influencing responses to pain. Elevated trait anger-out is associated with increased responsiveness to acute experimental and clinical pain stimuli, and is generally related to elevated chronic pain intensity in individuals with diverse pain conditions. Possible mechanisms for these links are explored, including negative affect, psychodynamics, central adipose tissue, symptom specific muscle reactivity, endogenous opioid dysfunction, and genetics. The opioid dysfunction hypothesis has some experimental support, and simultaneously can account for anger-out's effects on both acute and chronic pain. Factors which may moderate the anger-out/pain link are described, including narcotic use, gender, and genetic polymorphisms. Pain exacerbating effects of trait anger-out are contrasted with the apparent pain inhibitory effects of behavioral anger expression exhibited in anger-provoking contexts. Conceptual issues related to the state versus trait effects of expressive anger regulation are discussed.