Psychosocial factors, immunologic mediation, and human susceptibility to infectious diseases: How much do we know?

Recent evidence from animal models of stress suggests that stress can impair immunologic competence, rendering the host more vulnerable to infection and neoplasm. The present authors review studies on the relationship between psychosocial factors and human immunologic functioning, focusing on studie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological bulletin 1984-01, Vol.95 (1), p.78-108
Main Authors: Jemmott, John B, Locke, Steven E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Antibody Formation
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child, Preschool
Conditioning (Psychology) - physiology
Disease Susceptibility
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Grief
Herpes Simplex - psychology
Hormones - immunology
Human
Humans
Hypnosis
Illness and personality
Immunity, Cellular
Immunization
Immunoglobulin A - immunology
Immunology
Infection - immunology
Infection - psychology
Infectious Disorders
Infectious Mononucleosis - psychology
Inhibition (Psychology)
Life Change Events
Literature Review
Lymphocytes - physiology
Male
Middle Aged
Motivation
Personality
Psychology and medicine
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Respiration Disorders - psychology
Skin - immunology
Stress, Physiological - immunology
Stress, Psychological - immunology
Susceptibility (Disorders)
Citations: Items that cite this one
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Description
Summary:Recent evidence from animal models of stress suggests that stress can impair immunologic competence, rendering the host more vulnerable to infection and neoplasm. The present authors review studies on the relationship between psychosocial factors and human immunologic functioning, focusing on studies bearing on the relationship of psychosocial factors to altered susceptibility to infectious diseases and those bearing on the relationship of such factors to specific aspects of the human immune response. Findings indicate that a variety of psychosocial variables, disease states, and aspects of both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses have been investigated, and evidence favors the view that psychosocial variables may play a role in modulating the human immune response. More research is needed before it can be definitively concluded that the relationship between stress and human susceptibility to infectious diseases is a psychoimmunologic nexus. Relationships between the endocrine and immune systems are also discussed. (5 p ref)
ISSN:0033-2909
1939-1455
DOI:10.1037/0033-2909.95.1.78