#65 Loneliness moderates the effects of chronic stress on the immune response to a pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine

Jones, Lisa; Robles, Ted; Kiecolt‐Glaser, Janice K.; Malarkey, William B.; Glaser, Ronald

doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2005.10.071

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Another future direction for this work is comparing effects of social networks during stressors with and without energetic demands. In one study, former dementia caregivers had a lower antibody response to pneumococcus vaccination if they were lonelier, but the reverse was true for current caregivers, who had a larger antibody response if they were lonelier (Jones et al, 2005). Both current and bereaved former caregivers report elevated distress (Robinson-Whelen et al, 2001), but former caregivers experience a significant reduction in the energetic demands of caregiving.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social networks and immunosuppression during stress: Relationship conflict or energy conservation?

Segerstrom

2008

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

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Despite the apparent health benefits of social relationships, some studies indicate that larger social networks can be associated with greater vulnerability to infectious disease, particularly if stressors are also present. Two possibilities for such effects are, first, that more social contacts lead to more negative affect and social conflict during stressors, or second, that maintaining more social contacts is an energetically costly activity, and ecologically motivated immunosuppression is one means of providing energy to maintain social resources. First-year law students (N = 76) completed questionnaires and had delayed-type hypersensitivity skin tests at five time points during their first 6 months of law school. Both moving away from home and a smaller social network associated with larger DTH responses (both p < .05) across all time points. However, negative affect, either broadly defined or as specific affects (hostility, sadness, guilt), did not mediate social network effects, suggesting that negative affect and social conflict are less plausible explanations than ecological immunosuppression. Ecological models would predict that temporary immunosuppression is less harmful to health in the long run than loss of social resources.Social relationships seem to yield significant health benefits, with the mortality risk of a small social network approximately equaling that for cigarette smoking (House et al., 1988). One potential pathway between social connectedness and clinical health is physiological: higher social support is associated with lower tonic blood pressure, reduced cardiovascular reactivity, and higher functional immune assays (e.g., natural killer cell cytotoxicity) and, conversely, loneliness is associated with elevated cortisol and lower functional immune assays (see Cacioppo et al., 2000;Uchino et al., 1996; for reviews). Beneficial effects of social relationships extend to non-human animals. For example, juvenile macaques separated from their mothers had higher lymphocyte proliferative responses if they were housed with conspecifics with whom they had "significant, complex relationships" than if they were housed alone; furthermore, proliferative responses were positively correlated with degree of affiliation with others during the separation (Boccia et al., 1997, p. 193).However, there are some notable cases in which a larger number of social relationships negatively correlated with immunity and health. Miller and Cole (1998) reviewed 10 studies of social relationships and HIV progression. In these studies, loneliness and other measures of low emotional satisfaction with social relationships associated with faster HIV progression. However, larger social network size and other measures of greater social integration such as intent to participate in social activities and greater affinity with social networks also associated with faster progression. An interaction between stress and social connectedness was observed Correspondence to: Suzanne C. Segerstrom, Ph.D., Department of Psycholo...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social networks and immunosuppression during stress: Relationship conflict or energy conservation?

Segerstrom

2008

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

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“…Rather, they involve a risk for mental illness (Hawthorne 2008 ), particularly in conjunction with stress exposure (cf. Jones et al 2005 ). A recent study provided initial support for this supposition with regard to domestic violence victimization (Kunst et al 2010 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the Link Between Domestic Violence Victimization and Loneliness in a Dutch Community Sample: A Comparison Between Victims and Nonvictims by Type D Personality

Kunst

Bon-Martens

2011

J Fam Viol

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The current study investigated whether differences in loneliness scores between individuals with a distressed personality type (type D personality) and subjects without such a personality varied by domestic violence victimization. Participants (N = 625) were recruited by random sampling from the Municipal Basic Administration of the Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch and were invited to fill out a set of questionnaires on health status. For this study, only ratings for domestic violence victimization, type D personality, feelings of loneliness, and demographics were used. Statistical analyses yielded main effects on loneliness for both type D personality and history of domestic violence victimization. Above and beyond these main effects, their interaction was significantly associated with loneliness as well. However, this result seemed to apply to emotional loneliness in particular. Findings were discussed in light of previous research and study limitations.

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#65 Loneliness moderates the effects of chronic stress on the immune response to a pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Social networks and immunosuppression during stress: Relationship conflict or energy conservation?

Social networks and immunosuppression during stress: Relationship conflict or energy conservation?

Examining the Link Between Domestic Violence Victimization and Loneliness in a Dutch Community Sample: A Comparison Between Victims and Nonvictims by Type D Personality

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