Correction to: Low Life Course Socioeconomic Status (SES) Is Associated with Negative NEO PI-R Personality Patterns.

After the publication of the original article, the Editor was notified by Duke University that they have determined the authorship to be incomplete. Consequently, Dr Edward Suarez has been added as a co-author to represent his contribution to the conception and design of the work and acquisition of the data.

Relationship Between Optimism and Outcomes in Patients With Chronic Angina Pectoris.

Greater optimism regarding recovery from chronic illness is associated with improved quality of life and clinical outcomes. We performed a post-hoc analysis on the association between optimism and outcomes in Ranolazine in Patients with Incomplete Revascularization after Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (RIVER-PCI), a randomized trial in patients with chronic angina pectoris who had incomplete revascularization following percutaneous coronary intervention. At baseline, patients answered how much they agreed with the phrase, "I am optimistic about my future and returning to a normal lifestyle.

The Effects of Tryptophan Enhancement and Depletion on Plasma Catecholamine Levels in Healthy Individuals.

Objective: Central nervous system (CNS) serotonin (5-HT) exerts both excitatory and inhibitory effects on the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) in animals. In this study, we examine the effects of tryptophan enhancement and depletion on plasma catecholamine levels in humans.

Methods: The total sample consisted of 164 healthy men and women who were tested for 2 days.

Computing a Synthetic Chronic Psychosocial Stress Measurement in Multiple Datasets and its Application in the Replication of G × E Interactions of the EBF1 Gene.

Chronic psychosocial stress adversely affects health and is associated with the development of disease [Williams, 2008]. Systematic epidemiological and genetic studies are needed to uncover genetic variants that interact with stress to modify metabolic responses across the life cycle that are the proximal contributors to the development of cardiovascular disease and precipitation of acute clinical events. Among the central challenges in the field are to perform and replicate gene-by-environment (G × E) studies.

Associations between central nervous system serotonin, fasting glucose, and hostility in African American females.

Background: Previous research has shown an association between hostility and fasting glucose in African American women. Central nervous system serotonin activity is implicated both in metabolic processes and in hostility related traits.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine whether central nervous system serotonin influences the association between hostility and fasting glucose in African American women.

Do depressive traits and hostility predict age-related decline in general intelligence?

Certain personality traits are likely to be associated with stress and distress through the lifespan, and as a consequence these traits may influence the rate of age-related cognitive decline. The present study uses data from the Glostrup 1914 cohort to analyze potential effects of personality on decline in general intelligence over a 30-year period. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was administered at a 50-year baseline exam, and from this inventory the Obvious Depression Scale and an abbreviated version of the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale were derived.

Keeping Pace With Oral Chemotherapy.

Purpose: Although the rising number of oral chemotherapy agents offers many patients with cancer a more convenient and less invasive treatment option compared with infusion therapy, multiple risks and challenges have been identified with the oral regimen, including dosing errors, drug interactions, and nonadherence or overadherence. Until recently, cancer care providers had maintained a considerable amount of control, including the certainty that the right drug was being administered in the right dose, via the right route, at the right time, and to the right patient-all of which were meticulously documented in patient records. In contrast, oral chemotherapy takes much of the control out of the clinician's hands and places tremendous responsibility on the patient, raising a number of adherence and control issues.

Recovery expectations and long-term prognosis of patients with coronary heart disease.

Background: Expectations of patients regarding their prospects for recovery have been shown to predict subsequent physical and social functioning. Evidence regarding the impact of expectations on clinical outcomes is limited.

Methods: At the inpatient service of a tertiary care hospital, we evaluated beliefs of patients undergoing coronary angiography about their prognosis as predictors of long-term survival and 1-year functional status.

Associations between APOE variants and metabolic traits and the impact of psychological stress.

Objective: In a previous study, we observed that associations between APOE rs439401 and metabolic traits were moderated by chronic stress. Thus, in a population of stressed and non-stressed Danish men, we examined whether associations between APOE rs439401 and a panel of metabolic quantitative traits, all metabolic traits which may lead to T2D and CVD were moderated by psychological stress.

Methods: Obese young men (n = 475, BMI ≥ 31.

Central nervous system serotonin and clustering of hostility, psychosocial, metabolic, and cardiovascular endophenotypes in men.

Objective: To use measures of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5HIAA) and genotype of a functional polymorphism of the monoamine oxidase A gene promoter (MAOA-uVNTR) to study the role of central nervous system (CNS) serotonin in clustering of hostility, other psychosocial, metabolic and cardiovascular endophenotypes.

Methods: In 86 healthy male volunteers, we evaluated CSF levels of the primary serotonin metabolite 5HIAA and MAOA-uVNTR genotype for association with a panel of 29 variables assessing hostility, other psychosocial, metabolic, and cardiovascular endophenotypes.

Results: The correlations of 5HIAA with these endophenotypes in men with more active MAOA-uVNTR alleles were significantly different from those of men with less active alleles for 15 of the 29 endophenotypes.

Impact of psychological stress on the associations between apolipoprotein E variants and metabolic traits: findings in an American sample of caregivers and controls.

Objective: To examine the association between apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene variants and waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose, serum insulin, serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and serum triglycerides, all metabolic traits known as cardiovascular disease (CVD) endophenotypes, in a population of stressed individuals and controls. Abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, elevated serum lipid concentration, and APOE polymorphisms have been associated with CVD risk. Current evidence supports the hypothesis that gene-environment interactions modulate serum lipid concentrations.

Prospective study of externalizing and internalizing subtypes of posttraumatic stress disorder and their relationship to mortality among Vietnam veterans.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be a complex disorder, and some studies have found that samples of individuals with PTSD contain subtypes that may relate to health outcomes. The goals were to replicate previously identified PTSD subtypes and examine how subtype membership relates to mortality. Data from the Vietnam Experience Study and a clinical sample of Vietnam veterans were combined (n = 5248) to address these research questions.

Vital exhaustion increases the risk of ischemic stroke in women but not in men: results from the Copenhagen City Heart Study.

Background: Several studies have indicated an association between depression and the development of stroke, but few studies have focused on gender differences, although both depression and stroke are more common in women than in men. The aim of the present study was to describe whether vital exhaustion, a measure of fatigue and depression, prospectively predicts ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes in a large cohort, with particular focus on gender differences.

Methods: The cohort was composed of 5219 women and 3967 men without cardiovascular disease who were examined in the Copenhagen City Heart Study in 1991-1994.

Major life events increase the risk of stroke but not of myocardial infarction: results from the Copenhagen City Heart Study.

Background: More attention has been paid to psychosocial conditions as possible risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the impact of accumulated major life events (MLE) on the development of CVD has received little attention.

Design: The aim of this study was to explore the influences of MLE on CVD risk in a large cohort study.

Methods: The study population consisted of 9542 randomly selected adults free of CVD examined in the Copenhagen City Heart Study in 1991-1994 and followed up for CVD defined as myocardial infarction or ischaemic stroke until 2001.

Low life course socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with negative NEO PI-R personality patterns.

Background: Low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with poor health. One potential pathway accounting for this relationship may be an association between low SES and personality characteristics that affect health.

Methods: Associations among parent's education, current SES (education and income), and personality were examined among 233 African Americans and Caucasian, male and female community volunteers.

Hostility and fasting glucose in African American women.

Objective: To examine whether the relationship of hostility (HOST) to fasting glucose indices is moderated by sex and race. HOST has been associated with abnormalities in glucose metabolism. Prior studies suggested that this association may be more prevalent in women and in African American (AA) individuals.

Evaluation of lifetime trauma exposure and physical health in women with posttraumatic stress disorder or major depressive disorder.

The current study examines lifetime trauma exposure rates in 148 women with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), or neither diagnosis and whether this is related to measures of PTSD, depression, hostility, health symptoms, and health care utilization. Findings indicate that multiple trauma exposures were prevalent in this sample, with 96% of those with PTSD and 79% of those with MDD reporting three or more trauma exposures compared to 46% in the comparison group. Controlling for diagnostic status, regression analysis for PTSD symptom severity reveals that the trauma exposure adult physical assault category was significantly associated with more severe PTSD and depressive symptoms, whereas the childhood violence category was most associated with increased hostility.

Cognitive ability in early adulthood and risk of 5 specific psychiatric disorders in middle age: the Vietnam experience study.

Context: Lower cognitive ability is a risk factor for some forms of psychopathology, but much of the evidence for risk is based on individuals who required specialist care. It is unclear whether lower ability influences the risk of particular patterns of comorbidity.

Objective: To examine the relation between premorbid cognitive ability in early adulthood and the risk of major depression, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol and other drug abuse or dependence, and comorbid forms of these conditions in midlife.

IQ in late adolescence/early adulthood, risk factors in middle age and later all-cause mortality in men: the Vietnam Experience Study.

Objective: To examine the role of potential mediating factors in explaining the IQ-mortality relation.

Design, Setting And Participants: A total of 4316 male former Vietnam-era US army personnel with IQ test results at entry into the service in late adolescence/early adulthood in the 1960/1970s (mean age at entry 20.4 years) participated in a telephone survey and medical examination in middle age (mean age 38.

Childhood socioeconomic status and serotonin transporter gene polymorphism enhance cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that low socioeconomic status (SES) and the 5HTTLPR L allele are associated with increased cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress in a larger sample and that SES and 5HTTLPR genotypes interact to enhance CVR to stress. CVR to mental stress has been proposed as one mechanism linking stress to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. The more transcriptionally efficient long (L) allele of a polymorphism of the serotonin transporter gene promoter (5HTTLPR) has been found associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction.

Hostility, drinking pattern and mortality.

Aims: This study examined the association of hostility to drinking pattern and whether this association mediated the relation of hostility to mortality.

Participants And Design: Subjects were 3326 current drinkers from the Vietnam Experience Study cohort who were followed for vital status.

Setting: United States.

Sleep quality varies as a function of 5-HTTLPR genotype and stress.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that allelic variation in 5HTT gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) genotype was associated with sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI) as a main effect and as moderated by the chronic stress of caregiving. Serotonin (5HT) is involved in sleep regulation and the 5HT transporter (5HTT) regulates 5HT function. A common 44-base pair deletion (s allele) polymorphism in the 5-HTTLPR is associated with reduced 5HTT transcription efficiency and 5HT uptake in vitro.

Depressive symptoms, race, and glucose concentrations: the role of cortisol as mediator.

Objective: This study examined the associations of depressive symptoms with glucose concentrations and morning cortisol levels in 665 African-American and 4,216 Caucasian Vietnam-era veterans.

Research Design And Methods: Glucose level was measured as a three-level variable (diabetes, impaired glucose, and normal). Depressive symptoms were measured by the Obvious Depression Scale (OBD) from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.

Associations of a regulatory polymorphism of monoamine oxidase-A gene promoter (MAOA-uVNTR) with symptoms of depression and sleep quality.

Objective: To examine the relationships among the variable number of tandem repeats in the monoamine oxidase-A linked polymorphic region allelic variation (MAOA-uVNTR) and the symptoms of depression and sleep quality. The monoamine oxidase-A (MAOA) gene, which plays a vital role in degradation of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, contains a polymorphism in its promoter region (MAOA-uVNTR) that affects transcriptional efficiency. MAOA-uVNTR genotype has been associated with both psychological and physical measures.