Hostility-related differences in the associations between stress-induced physiological reactivity and lipid concentrations in young healthy women

The Effect of Mental Activation of One's Pet Dog on Stress Reactivity

Research suggests that mental activation of human social support may reduce stress reactivity. However, the extent to which social support from pets elicits a similar effect has been less explored. This study aims to determine whether the mental activation of one's pet dog reduces stress reactivity to a subsequent experimental stressor. In a 2 × 2 design, 132 dog-owning participants (Mage = 20.14; 80% female) were randomly assigned to one of two mental activation conditions (pet dog; general) and one of two stressor conditions (social-evaluative; cognitive). Data were analyzed with two-way ANOVAs with self-reported (positive/negative affect, negative self-evaluation) and physiological (blood pressure, heart rate) dependent variables. Results indicated that participants randomized to the pet dog mental activation condition had smaller decreases in positive affect from baseline to post-stressor compared to the general mental activation condition. However, there were no significant interactions between time and mental activation condition on negative affect, negative self-evaluation, heart rate, or blood pressure. Thus, the mental activation of one's pet dog had a minimal effect on stress reactivity to a cognitive or social-evaluative stressor. Results suggest that the physical presence of an animal may be an essential mechanism underlying the benefits of animal-derived social support.

Psychological and somatic symptoms of anxiety and risk of coronary heart disease: the health and social support prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

Despite evidence showing anxiety to be a negative emotion that can be accompanied by various psychological and somatic complaints, previous studies have rarely considered these two components of anxiety separately in relation to coronary heart disease (CHD) events. This study aims to examine the extent to which the psychological and somatic components of anxiety are predictive of CHD.

METHODS

This is a prospective population-based cohort study of 24,128 participants (9830 men, 14,298 women) aged 20 to 54 years. Psychological and somatic symptoms were assessed at study baseline in 1998. Fatal and nonfatal CHD events during the following 7 years were documented from data on hospitalizations from the National Hospital Discharge Register and mortality records from the Statistics Finland Register.

RESULTS

In men, unadjusted hazard ratios for CHD per one unit increase in mean score were 1.50 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.21-1.87) for somatic symptoms and 1.04 (95% CI, .85-1.29) for psychological symptoms. After serial adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, biobehavioral risk factors, and clinically significant symptoms of depression, these associations were completely attenuated. In women, the corresponding unadjusted hazard ratios were 2.25 (95% CI, 1.66-3.06) and 1.55 (95% CI, 1.12-2.13), respectively. The corresponding fully adjusted hazard ratios were 1.47 (95% CI, 1.04-2.06) and 1.24 (95% CI, .91-1.70).

CONCLUSIONS

Somatic symptoms of anxiety were robustly associated with an increased risk of CHD in women. This finding lends support to the physiological pathway for the association between psychological factors, anxiety in particular, and CHD.

Cynical hostility, socioeconomic position, health behaviors, and symptom load: a cross-sectional analysis in a Danish population-based study

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the cross-sectional association between cynical hostility and high symptom load in a Danish population-based study. Furthermore, the aim was to investigate to what extent health risk behaviors mediated this association.

METHODS

Data were based on a postal questionnaire in a Danish random sample of 3426 men and 3699 women aged 40 or 50 years. Cynical hostility was measured by the 8-item Cynical Distrust Scale. High symptom load was assessed by physiological and mental symptoms experienced within the last 4 weeks. Confounders were age and socioeconomic position, while potential mediators were alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity, and BMI.

RESULTS

Higher cynical hostility was associated with self-reported symptom load. Health behaviors did not seem to mediate this effect. Socioeconomic position was a strong confounder for the effect on both health and health behaviors. After adjustment the effects of hostility on health remained with odds ratios of 2.1 (1.7-2.6) for women and 2.3 (1.8-2.8) for men.

CONCLUSION

After adjustment for socioeconomic position, cynical hostility has an effect on self-reported high symptom load, and this effect is not mediated by health behaviors.

Acute stressors and cortisol responses: a theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research

This meta-analysis reviews 208 laboratory studies of acute psychological stressors and tests a theoretical model delineating conditions capable of eliciting cortisol responses. Psychological stressors increased cortisol levels; however, effects varied widely across tasks. Consistent with the theoretical model, motivated performance tasks elicited cortisol responses if they were uncontrollable or characterized by social-evaluative threat (task performance could be negatively judged by others), when methodological factors and other stressor characteristics were controlled for. Tasks containing both uncontrollable and social-evaluative elements were associated with the largest cortisol and adrenocorticotropin hormone changes and the longest times to recovery. These findings are consistent with the animal literature on the physiological effects of uncontrollable social threat and contradict the belief that cortisol is responsive to all types of stressors.

Cardiovascular stress responses among Asian Indian and European American women and men

Asian Indians have approximately 3 times the rate of coronary artery disease as do age-matched European Americans, but the increased risk cannot be explained by the presence of known physiological and behavioral risk factors. One previous study suggested that Asian Indians have diminished vasoactive responses to isoproterenol, but no published study has examined responses to psychological stressors. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the vasomotor response to stress, as indexed by hemodynamic measures, would be exaggerated in Asian Indian men and women, relative to European American individuals. Thirty-seven Asian Indian and 43 European American men and women were tested in a standard reactivity protocol, whereas heart rate, blood pressure, and cardiac impedance measures were assessed. Asian Indian men and women had significantly smaller changes in systolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure during the stressors, relative to European American men and women. Asian Indian women, but not men, had significantly smaller diastolic blood pressure and total peripheral-resistance index changes to the stressors, relative to the other 3 groups. These data are in contrast to our expectation of decreased tendency of Asian Indians to vasodilate during psychological stress but do suggest that sex and Asian Indian ethnicity interact to influence vascular reactivity to stressors.

Audience status moderates the effects of social support and self-efficacy on cardiovascular reactivity during public speaking

Exaggerated blood pressure responses to stress are implicated in the development of cardiovascular disease, and an effort has been made to identify factors associated with such responses. One situational factor that impacts cardiovascular responses to stress is the presence of other people and their behavior. Here, we manipulated the status of the audience during a stressful public speaking task to explore its impact on reactivity and its possible role in moderating the effects of the speaker's confidence and the audience's response during the speech. Sixty-four normotensive female undergraduates, classified as having high or low self-efficacy for public speaking, gave a 5-min speech to an audience that responded positively or negatively. Half of the audiences were presented as public speaking experts and half as novices. Cardiovascular reactivity was greater for low-efficacy speakers and for those receiving positive feedback. Reactivity was also greater facing an expert audience. Furthermore, the effects of both self-efficacy and audience feedback were intensified before an expert audience. To understand social support effects, we must attend not only to characteristics of the recipient but also to those of the provider.