Relationships Between Hostility, Affective Ratings of Pictures, and State Affects During Task-Induced Stress

Early Life Stress, Coping, and Cardiovascular Reactivity to Acute Social Stress

OBJECTIVE

Early life stress (ELS) occurring during childhood and adolescence is an established risk factor for later cardiovascular disease and dysregulated reactivity to acute social stress. This study examined whether ELS associations with baseline cardiovascular functioning, cardiovascular stress reactivity and recovery, and emotional stress reactivity vary across levels of emotion-oriented, task-oriented, and avoidant coping styles.

METHODS

The sample included 1027 adolescents and young adults (mean age = 19.29 years; 50% female; 64% Black, 34% non-Hispanic White) who reported on their ELS exposure and coping styles. Participants completed a standardized acute social stress test (the Trier Social Stress Test [TSST]), with heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) measured before, during, and after the TSST. Self-reports of negative emotions during the TSST indexed emotional stress reactivity.

RESULTS

Multiple regression models adjusting for demographic factors and body mass index showed that ELS was associated with lower HR stress reactivity, avoidant coping was related to lower systolic BP and diastolic BP during stress and lower systolic BP during recovery, and higher emotion-oriented coping and lower task-oriented coping predicted greater emotional stress reactivity. A consistent pattern emerged where emotion-oriented coping amplified the associations between ELS and maladaptive stress responses (blunted cardiovascular stress reactivity and recovery; enhanced emotional stress reactivity), whereas lower levels of emotion-oriented coping were associated with resilient profiles among those who experienced ELS (lower resting HR, lower emotional stress reactivity, average HR and BP stress reactivity and recovery). However, low levels of emotion-oriented coping also conferred a risk of higher BP during recovery for those with high levels of ELS.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that low to moderate levels of emotion-oriented coping promote optimal cardiovascular and emotional reactivity to acute stress among individuals exposed to ELS.

Neural basis of individual differences in the response to mental stress: a magnetoencephalography study

Stress is a risk factor for the onset of mental disorders. Although stress response varies across individuals, the mechanism of individual differences remains unclear. Here, we investigated the neural basis of individual differences in response to mental stress using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Twenty healthy male volunteers completed the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). The experiment included two types of tasks: a non-stress-inducing task and a stress-inducing task. During these tasks, participants passively viewed non-stress-inducing images and stress-inducing images, respectively, and MEG was recorded. Before and after each task, MEG and electrocardiography were recorded and subjective ratings were obtained. We grouped participants according to Novelty seeking (NS) - tendency to be exploratory, and Harm avoidance (HA) - tendency to be cautious. Participants with high NS and low HA (n = 10) assessed by TCI had a different neural response to stress than those with low NS and high HA (n = 10). Event-related desynchronization (ERD) in the beta frequency band was observed only in participants with high NS and low HA in the brain region extending from Brodmann's area 31 (including the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus) from 200 to 350 ms after the onset of picture presentation in the stress-inducing task. Individual variation in personality traits (NS and HA) was associated with the neural response to mental stress. These findings increase our understanding of the psychological and neural basis of individual differences in the stress response, and will contribute to development of the psychotherapeutic approaches to stress-related disorders.

Emotional reactions to pain predict psychological distress in adult patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)

Differentiating somatic from emotional influences on the experience of chronic pain has been of interest to clinicians and researchers for many years. Although prior research has not well specified these pathways at the anatomical level, some evidence, both theoretical and empirical, suggest that emotional reactions influence the experience of disease and non-disease-related pains. Other studies suggest that treatments directed at negative emotional responses reduce suffering associated with pain. The current study was conducted to explore the influence of emotional reactions to pain as a predictor of psychological distress in a sample of adult Blacks with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Using cross-sectional survey data, we evaluated whether negative emotional reactions to the experience of pain were predictive of psychological distress after controlling for the somatic dimension of pain and age in n = 67 Black patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Results showed that greater negative emotion associated with pain predicted Somatization (p < .01), Anxiety (p < .05), Phobic Anxiety (p < .05), and Psychoticism (p < .05). Increased negative emotion associated with pain was also predictive of the General Symptoms Index (p < .05) and the Positive Symptoms Total from the SCL-90-R (p < .01). We believe the current study demonstrates that negative emotional reactions to the experience of pain in adults with SCD are predictive of psychological distress above and beyond the influences of age and the direct nociceptive experience. We also believe these data to be valuable in conceptualizing the allocation of treatment resources toward a proactive approach with early identification of patients who are responding poorly for the purpose of potentially reducing later psychopathology. A deeper understanding of the ways that subpopulations cope with chronic disease-related pain may produce models that can be ultimately generalized to the consumers of the majority of healthcare resources.

The role of predisposition to hallucinations on non-clinical paranoid vs. socially anxious individuals after hearing negative affective-laden sounds: an experimental investigation

BACKGROUND

Research suggested that negative affective-laden sounds act as environmental stressors that elicit negative affect (Bradley and Lang, 2000a).

AIMS

We tried to test for the role of an interaction between predisposition to hallucinatory experiences and exposure to negative affective laden sounds for the presence of paranoid ideation.

METHOD

We used an experimental design that followed the vulnerability × stress model. We defined three groups from a sample of students: paranoia group vs. social anxiety group vs. control group. Their psychological characteristics were measured through self-reports of paranoia, anxiety, predisposition to hallucinations and depressive symptoms at Time 1 (before the experiment). Participants had to listen to either negative affective laden sounds (e.g. screaming) or positive affective laden sounds (e.g. sound of ocean waves). Their paranoid ideation and positive vs. negative emotional reactions to sounds were measured through self-reports at Time 2 (after the experiment).

RESULTS

Data showed that the paranoia group presented more serious psychological vulnerabilities than the social anxiety group. A MANCOVA also showed that the independent variables ("group" and "experimental sound conditions") had statistically significant main effects on general paranoia ideation at Time 2. Furthermore, there was a significant three-way interaction between group x predisposition to hallucinatory experiences × experimental condition of sounds for the presence of general paranoid ideation at Time 2. Limitations included the small sample size and the effects of parasite variables, e.g. noise.

CONCLUSIONS

Individuals' predisposition for hallucinatory experiences increases the probability of possessing paranoid ideation. This tendency is a characteristic of paranoid non-clinical individuals.