Self-efficacy and enjoyment of middle school children performing the progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run (PACER).

Self-efficacy and enjoyment were examined among 34 middle school children (M age = 12.5 yr.) performing the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER).

Chronic stress, glucocorticoid receptor resistance, inflammation, and disease risk.

We propose a model wherein chronic stress results in glucocorticoid receptor resistance (GCR) that, in turn, results in failure to down-regulate inflammatory response. Here we test the model in two viral-challenge studies. In study 1, we assessed stressful life events, GCR, and control variables including baseline antibody to the challenge virus, age, body mass index (BMI), season, race, sex, education, and virus type in 276 healthy adult volunteers.

Predicted and actual exercise discomfort in middle school children.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to use a match-mismatch paradigm to examine children's exercise discomfort during an aerobic shuttle run.

Methods: Thirty-four middle school females (n = 18) and males (n = 16) aged 11-14 yr participated. An Exercise Discomfort Index (EDI) was calculated as a rating of perceived exertion for the overall body (Children's OMNI Scale) x a rating of perceived muscle hurt (Children's OMNI Muscle Hurt Scale).

Trait positive affect and antibody response to hepatitis B vaccination.

Recent evidence suggests that dispositional positive affect may be associated with decreased vulnerability to upper respiratory infections. To explore a potential pathway of this relationship, we examined whether trait positive affect is related to an in vivo immune response relevant for host resistance to infection. Eighty-four healthy, graduate students who tested negative for prior expose to the hepatitis B virus were administered the standard hepatitis B vaccination series.

Loneliness, social network size, and immune response to influenza vaccination in college freshmen.

Antibody response to the influenza immunization was investigated in 83 1st-semester healthy university freshmen. Elevated levels of loneliness throughout the semester and small social networks were independently associated with poorer antibody response to 1 component of the vaccine. Those with both high levels of loneliness and a small social network had the lowest antibody response.

The effect of sunlight on postoperative analgesic medication use: a prospective study of patients undergoing spinal surgery.

Objective: Exposure to natural sunlight has been associated with improvement in mood, reduced mortality among patients with cancer, and reduced length of hospitalization for patients who have experienced myocardial infarction. Our aim was to evaluate whether the amount of sunlight in a hospital room modifies a patient's psychosocial health, the quantity of analgesic medication used, and the pain medication cost.

Methods: A prospective study of pain medication use was conducted in 89 patients undergoing elective cervical and lumbar spinal surgery where they were housed on either the "bright" or "dim" side of the same hospital unit.

Psychological stress and antibody response to influenza vaccination: when is the critical period for stress, and how does it get inside the body?

Objectives: This study attempted to determine whether stress of moderate intensity could modulate the antibody response to an influenza vaccination in healthy young adults, identify critical periods during which stress could influence antibody response, and delineate behavioral and biological pathways that might explain relations between stress and antibody.

Methods: A cohort of 83 healthy young adults underwent 13 days of ambulatory monitoring before, during, and after vaccination. Four times daily, subjects reported the extent to which they felt stressed and overwhelmed and collected a saliva sample that was later used to measure cortisol.

2002 Robert Ader New Investigator award. Relationship of cardiovascular reactivity, stressful life events, and multiple sclerosis disease activity.

Previous studies of stress in multiple sclerosis patients have suggested that life events may alter the onset and development of MS. However, results have been inconsistent because of infrequent monitoring and reporting bias. We followed fifty female MS patients for 1 year to determine characteristics of life events associated with MS exacerbations, and examine the influence of cardiovascular activity.

The locus coeruleus, Barrington's nucleus, and neural circuits of stress.

Much attention has focused on the role of the locus coeruleus (LC) as a component of the central neural circuitry involved in stress. Many, though not all, stressful stimuli produce activation of LC neurons, as reflected by increased Fos expression in these neurons. Stimulation of the LC elicits many stress-like responses, including increased ACTH secretion, though not all responses to LC stimulation are readily interpretable in the context of stress.

Stressful life events precede exacerbations of multiple sclerosis.

Objective: We longitudinally monitored life events and health changes in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) to determine whether stressful events may trigger exacerbation of MS.

Methods: Twenty-three women with MS were followed for 1 year. Each subject completed the Psychiatric Epidemiologic Research Interview on a weekly basis.

Reactivity and vulnerability to stress-associated risk for upper respiratory illness.

Objective: We tested the hypothesis that the greater a person's laboratory stress-elicited elevation in cortisol, the greater the life stress-related risk for upper respiratory infection (URI). We also tested the prediction that the greater the laboratory stress-elicited rise in natural killer cell (NK) cytotoxicity, the smaller the life stress-related URI risk. Finally, we explored whether sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and enumerative immune reactivities to laboratory stress moderate the relation between life stress and URI.

Effects of social reorganization on cellular immunity in male cynomolgus monkeys.

Exposure to acute stressors has been shown to impair cellular immunity in human beings and other animal species. Comparatively little is known, however, about the effects of long-term stressors on immune function and how individual behavioral characteristics may mediate differences in immune function and clinical disease susceptibility. To determine the effects of social stress on cellular immunity and reactivation of a latent herpesvirus, 20 Herpes B virus-positive male cynomolgus monkeys were exposed to four periodic reorganizations of social group memberships over 5 months.

The relationship of agonistic and affiliative behavior patterns to cellular immune function among cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) living in unstable social groups.

Considerable recent interest has focused on the possibility that behavioral factors may influence immune competence, and hence, potentially, patterns of disease. We report here the relationship between the aggressive and affiliative behavior and the cellular immune responses of 30 adult male cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) living in small (n = 5) social groups whose members were periodically redistributed over 26 months. Animals also were subjected to behavioral observation, allowing them to be categorized as either high or low in aggressiveness and affiliation.