Lecture 3 - Psychoneuroimmunology

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Chapter #3
Psychoneuroimmunology
PSYCH2036
The Psychology of Physical Health and Illness
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Presentation Overview
 Discuss why psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is important to health psychology

 Highlight some important PNI research
 Explore the biological relationships between psychological states and health
 Explore fundamental biological mechanisms linking psychological states and health
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Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
 PNI:
 The study of the relationship between psychological states and the functioning of
the immune system
 Psychology + Nervous System + Immunity = PNI
 Immunocompetence:
 The extent to which one’s immune system is functioning properly to ward off
microorganisms
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Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) in Health Psychology
 Links psychology and health

 Bridges communication between social scientists and health care practitioners
 Interdisciplinary research that examines and explains immune function in
terms of:
 Biologicalfactors
 Psychological factors
 Social factors
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Measuring Immune System Function
Independent Variable Dependent Variable

 Some psychological state  Usually a measure of immunocompetence
 Naturally occurring or experimentally induced Can measure immunocompetence by counting cells
or measuring cells in action
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Measuring Immunocompetence
Enumerative Assay Functional Tests of Immunity

 Cell counting  Observes cells in action
 Minimum number  In vitro – mitogen stimulates activity
 Balance among types  In vivo – measure antibody (AB) production
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Natural Killer (NK) Cell Activity
 Measured by in vitro techniques

 NK cell cytotoxic activity assay: test in which the proliferation and effectiveness of NK cells is
measured after they have been exposed to diseased cells
 NK cell lysis: destroying tumour cells by exposing them to NK cells
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In Vivo Tests of Immunocompetence
 1. Herpesvirus: suppression of the

immune system increases the
herpesviruses and the more
antibodies
 Higher AB counts for herpesvirus-
specific antibodies indicate poorer
immune-system function
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In Vivo Tests of Immunosuppression
 2. Introduction of an antigen into the body either by injection or nasal

spray
 Count antigen specific antibodies in response to the injection
 More Ab indicates better immunocompetence
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Methodological Issues in Measurement
 Several challenges in PNI research

 Short-term vs. long-term effects
 Acute stressors vs. Chronic stressors
 Many forms of immune-system function
 Statistical significance vs. Clinical significance
 Is statistical significance clinically important?
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Stress Effects on Immune Functioning
 Stress: adverse condition in which the demands of a situation are perceived

to be greater than our ability to cope with them
 Lab research shows:
 Acute stressors immediately inhibit an effective immune system response
 Personality also affects stress response
 Stress has long-term effects on immunity
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Linking Childhood Adversity with Poor Adult Health
 Growing evidence that early childhood experiences affect health across the
entire lifespan
 The Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP)
 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
 Process by which experience has permanent effects on the expression of
the genetic coding is biological imbedding
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Biological Embedding of Childhood Adversity Model
 Adverse Childhood Experiences

 Adverse experiences of early childhood
impinge upon DNA and alters the immune
system by permanently changing cells
responsible for the regulation of
inflammation
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Stress and Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (URTI)
 Common illnesses (e.g., cold, flu)

 Affected (worsened or started) by stress
 Several factors interact to predict one’s response to stress
 Generalized Anxiety Disorder
 Social support
 Positive life events
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Stress and Autoimmune Disease
 Autoimmune Disease
 The development of antibodies that attack the body’s own tissue
 E.g., rheumatoid arthritis, insulin-dependent diabetes, multiple sclerosis
 Stress can increase risk of contracting
 Relaxation and meditation can lower pain in arthritis
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Stress and Cancer
 Relationship between stress and cancer

 NK cells protect against cancer
 Psychological factors affect NK cell activity under stress
 Major life stress sometimes affects cancer
 Stress can worsen cancer but not predispose someone to developing cancer
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Effect of Depression on
Immune Functioning
 Negative life events can elicit a negative mood that
threatens immune function
 E.g., caregiving stress
 Study: measuring immune function for three groups of
wives
1. Wives with healthy husbands
2. Wives of husbands being treated for lung cancer
3. Wives of husbands who’ve died from lung cancer
 Results: the third group was the most depressed and also
had the poorest immune function
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Negative Mood and Immune Function
 Negative mood and URTI

 Important to distinguish between state and trait
 Cohen et al study (1995)
 The purpose of this study was to sort out whether negative states of traits were more influence on the
development of URTI
 Results:
 Both state-negative and trait-negative affect were correlated with symptom reporting
 Only state negative affect was correlated with objectively confirmed symptoms
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Negative Mood and Immune Function
 Depression and cancer

 Depression predicts cancer mortality
 Pessimism = related to lower survival
 Negative mood states are related to increased risk of contracting and dying of cancer
 Immunocompetence doesn’t provide the whole explanation
“Giving Up-Given Up” Complex

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Mood and Immune Function
 Depression and heart health:

 Depression as possible risk factor for heart
disease and related mortality
 Higher risk of first heart attack
 Higher risk with major depression
 Associated with reduced responsiveness of the
immune system, reduced ability
to deal with inflammation
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Mood and Immune Function
 Negative mood and HIV infection:

 Study of 1,700 HIV-positive women, depression associated with shorter time to
AIDS-related death (Cook et al., 2004)
 Depression associated with lower T-helper cell activity in HIV+ individuals when
T-helper cell counts are high
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Proposed Biological Mechanisms
 Psychological states and traits affect our health and illness via:
1. Endocrine system: glucocorticoids
2. Sympathetic nervous system: reactivity hypothesis
3. Immune system: affected by cortisol and activation of HPA axis
4. Behaviour: (e.g., depression affects sleep)
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Biological Mechanisms
 Hypothalamic-Pituitary Adrenal Axis

 Chronic activation when the stressor is strong
 Role of inflammation
 Cytokines: increase the body’s capacity to produce
inflammation
 Extreme stress can result in excessive inflammation
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Lecture Takeaways
 PNI provides empirical evidence for
the mind-body connection
 PNI at the cellular level
 Prominent health conditions
discovered in the PNI literature
 Biological fundamentals of PNI

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1

 Discuss why psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is important to health psychology

 Links psychology and health

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Enumerative Assay Functional Tests of Immunity

 Measured by in vitro techniques

 1. Herpesvirus: suppression of the

 2. Introduction of an antigen into the body either by injection or nasal

 Several challenges in PNI research

 Stress: adverse condition in which the demands of a situation are perceived

 Adverse Childhood Experiences

 Common illnesses (e.g., cold, flu)

 Relationship between stress and cancer

 Negative mood and URTI

 Depression and cancer

“Giving Up-Given Up” Complex

 Depression and heart health:

 Negative mood and HIV infection:

 Hypothalamic-Pituitary Adrenal Axis

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