Catecholamine activity and reported morbidity

Abstract

Abstract:Urinary VMA levels were measured in relation to the reporting of morbidity in an attempt to determine whether altered catecholamine activity is related to specific disease syndromes, or is a general characteristic of morbidity. The cross-sectional data show elevated VMA levels to be associated with the reporting of chronic disease conditions; non-chronic conditions and affective disorders were associated with lower VMA values, Although these findings are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that psycho-social stimuli acting through the sympathetic-adrenal medullary system may be important in the etiology of chronic disease conditions, alternative explanations are discussed and the need for further longitudinal studies indicated. Article:INTRODUCTION DURING the past several decades, the study of relationships between psychosocial factors and disease has led to better understanding of both the psychosocial events which may trigger or enhance disease processes, and the physiological mechanisms involved. Investigators are now in substantial agreement that psychosocial events can play an etiological role in a variety of different diseases. However, despite this progress, it is still unclear how these events are translated into disease states.Two different approaches have generally been taken to study this problem. One approach holds that there is a degree of specificity in these relationships, with certain types of psychosocial events more often associated with one type of pathophysiologic condition than other types. This approach is illustrated by numerous studies which have successfully demonstrated that specific disease entities such as tuberculosis [1,2], hypertension [3][4][5], coronary heart disease [6], cancer [7,8], rheumatoid arthritis [9,10], and even complications of pregnancy [11, 12] can be related to certain psychosocial events or to certain individual behavior patterns.Other investigators have taken a second approach, in which the general nature of a person's interactions within the social environment is related to overall morbidity [13][14][15][16][17], and increased morbidity of all types has been related to perception of `...life situations as demanding, threatening and frustrating ' [18].A way to begin resolving this question of causality is to evaluate both the morbidity and the presumed psychosocial risk factors for a common physiological link. One such physiological intermediary appears to be the sympathetic-adrenal medullary system, Elevated levels of the catecholamines and their metabolites have been reported in experimental subjects associated with exposure to various types of psychosocial stimuli [19]. Furthermore, increased catecholamine levels have been reported for several disease states including angina [20], hypertension [21,22] and gastric and duodenal ulcers [23,24]. In addition, elevated catecholamine activity has been suggested as a possible factor in the etiology of diabetes [25,26], and a beta adrenergic mechanism has been proposed as a central element in the develo...

Socialization and the human physiologic response to crowding.

“…19 Since neither specimen volumes nor collection intervals could be controlled in this study, urine specimens were analyzed for both VMA and creatinine concentrations to compensate for possible variation in collection times and individual variation in renal function. creatinine.…”