Differential Immune System Changes with Acute and Persistent Stress for Optimists vs Pessimists

Cohen, Frances; Kearney, Kathleen A.; Zegans, Leonard S.; Kemeny, Margaret E.; Neuhaus, John; Stites, Daniel P.

doi:10.1006/brbi.1998.0531

Cited by 117 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…More than a decade ago, Melnechuk (1988) reviewed information showing positive affect modulated immune function. Cohen et al (1999) found that an optimistic attitude moderated the association between acute stress and immune function. Segerstrom et al (1998) presented evidence showing optimists had increased numbers of helper T cells and higher natural killer cell cytotoxicity in response to a stressful event.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Onset of Frailty in Older Adults and the Protective Role of Positive Affect.

Ostir

Ottenbacher

Markides

2004

Psychology and Aging

168

143

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The aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal association between positive affect and onset of frailty for 1,558 initially nonfrail older Mexican Americans from the Hispanic Established Populations for Epidemiological Studies of the Elderly database. The incidence of frailty increased 7.9% during the 7-year follow-up period. High positive affect was found to significantly lower the risk of frailty. Each unit increase in baseline positive affect score was associated with a 3% decreased risk of frailty after adjusting for relevant risk factors. Findings add to a growing positive psychology literature by showing that positive affect is protective against the functional and physical decline associated with frailty.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Onset of Frailty in Older Adults and the Protective Role of Positive Affect.

Ostir

Ottenbacher

Markides

2004

Psychology and Aging

168

143

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“…Sieber et al (1992) found that optimists had a greater decrease in natural killer cell cytotoxicity when exposed to uncontrollable stress (noise). Similarly, F. Cohen et al (1999) found that optimists showed greater immune decrements than pessimists when stress was maintained at high levels over 3 months. As Segerstrom et al (2003) note "Optimists' positive moods and confidence" may be "beneficial when coping efforts are effective" but could "lead to greater disappointment and distress when efforts are thwarted or unsuccessful" (p. 1616).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Dispositional optimism and the mechanisms by which it predicts slower disease progression in HIV: proactive behavior, avoidant coping, and depression

Ironson

Balbin

Stuetzle

et al. 2005

Int. J. Behav. Med.

126

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The issue of whether optimism may prospectively protect against disease progression is one that has generated much interest, with mixed results in the literature. The purpose of this study was to determine whether dispositional optimism predicts slower disease progression in HIV. Two indicators of disease progression, CD4 counts and viral load, were assessed over 2 years in a diverse group (men, women, White, African American, Hispanic) of 177 people with HIV in the midrange of disease at entry to the study. Optimism predicted slower disease progression (less decrease in CD4 and less increase in viral load) controlling for baseline CD4 and viral load, antiretroviral treatment, gender, race, education, and drug use. Those low on optimism (25th percentile) lost CD4 cells at a rate 1.55 times faster than those high on optimism (75th percentile). Optimists had higher proactive behavior, less avoidant coping, and less depression: These variables mediated the linear optimism-disease progression relationship. Thus, optimists may reap health benefits partly through behavioral (proactive behavior), cognitive (avoidant coping), and affective (depression) pathways. Implications, limitations, and interpretations are discussed. Taylor et al., 2000). One of the most intriguing of these is optimism. There is the popular belief that maintaining hope or optimism may influence survival. Many doctors encourage their patients to develop a positive attitude believing it may be helpful to patients (Schofield et al., 2004). However, there have only been a few studies scientifically examining this.One study gaining widespread attention (Schofield et al., 2004) recently found that dispositional optimism did not predict progression-free survival in patients with lung cancer and concluded that "encouraging patients to 'be positive' may only add to the burden of having cancer while providing little benefit" (p. 1276). Schulz, Bookwala, Knapp, Scheier, and Williamson (1996) found that, although dispositional optimism did not predict survival in patients with recurrent or metastasized cancer receiving palliative radiation treatment, pessimistic life orientation was a risk factor for mortality but only in younger (age < 59) patients. In contrast, dispositional optimism predicted survival over 1 year in head and neck cancer patients (Allison, Guichard, Fung, & Gilain, 2003). Several studies not restricted to cancer patients found that dispositional optimism is related to better health outcomes including better recovery and less rehospitalization from coronary bypass surgery Scheier et al., 1999) and lower all cause and cardiovascular mortality (Giltay, Geleijnse, Zitman, Hoeskstra, & Evert, 2004). In addition, one study found that a "cognitive adaptation index," which included dispositional optimism, situational-specific optimism, self-esteem, and mastery, predicted fewer new coronary events after Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) (Helgeson & Fritz, 1999).Although most of the studies noted previously focused on dis...

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“…Support for affective mediation consistent with the engagement model was predicted to be better than that for the disappointment model because (1) negative affect and negative affectivity have not accounted for the effects of optimism on immunity in some previous investigations (F. Cohen et al, 1999;Segerstrom, 2001); (2) potentially disappointing events such as health relapse have not increased distress for people with higher premorbid optimism, suggesting that optimists are not at risk for increased negative affect following expectancy violation (Litt, Tennen, Affleck, & Klock, 1992;Helgeson, 2003;Stanton & Snider, 1993); and (3) in the mental arithmetic study, the effects of conscientiousness, a personality factor related to goal engagement, paralleled those of optimism, where as neuroticism, a personality factor related to distress, did not (Segerstrom et al, 2003).…”

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confidence: 86%

“…stressor duration (F. Cohen et al, 1999). Higher optimism associated with higher T cell counts (CD8+CD11b+) when stressors lasted less than one week, but with lower T cell counts (CD8 +CD11b−) and NKCC when stressors lasted longer than one week.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…F. Cohen et al (1999) and Sieber et al (1992) posited that although optimists are typically less distressed than pessimists, optimists who encounter difficult stressors might be more disappointed, distressed, and demoralized than their pessimistic counterparts because such stressors violate their positive expectancies (c.f., Tennen & Affleck, 1987). In this disappointment model, optimism leads to negative affect that subsequently decreases immune parameters.…”

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confidence: 99%

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How does optimism suppress immunity? Evaluation of three affective pathways.

Segerstrom¹

2006

Health Psychology

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Studies have linked optimism to poorer immunity during difficult stressors. In the present report, when first-year law students (N = 46) relocated to attend law school, reducing conflict among curricular and extracurricular goals, optimism predicted larger delayed type hypersensitivity responses, indicating more robust in vivo cellular immunity. However, when students did not relocate, increasing goal conflict, optimism predicted smaller responses. Although this effect has been attributed to negative affect when difficult stressors violate optimistic expectancies, distress did not mediate optimism's effects on immunity. Alternative affective mediators related to engagementengaged affect and fatigue -likewise failed to mediate optimism's effects, although all three types of affect independently influenced in vivo immunity. Alternative pathways include effort or selfregulatory depletion.

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Differential Immune System Changes with Acute and Persistent Stress for Optimists vs Pessimists

Cited by 117 publications

References 47 publications

Onset of Frailty in Older Adults and the Protective Role of Positive Affect.

Onset of Frailty in Older Adults and the Protective Role of Positive Affect.

Dispositional optimism and the mechanisms by which it predicts slower disease progression in HIV: proactive behavior, avoidant coping, and depression

How does optimism suppress immunity? Evaluation of three affective pathways.

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