Stress and Health

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McEwen, B.S., & Stellar, E. (1993).  Stress and the individual mechanisms leading to disease.  Archives of International Medicine, 153, 2093-2101.  Examines diseases associated with stress, including asthma, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders, myocardial infarction, hypertension, cancer, viral infections, and autoimmunity; discusses mechanisms, including neurochemistry (serotonin) and immunology (natural killer cell activity and cancer).  See recent update in: McEwen, B.S.(1998). Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators.  New England Journal of Medicine, 338, 171-179.

Kiecolt-Glaser, J.K., Marucha, P.T., Malarkey, W.B., Mercado, A.M., & Glaser, R. (1996).  Slowing wound healing by psychological stress.  Lancet, 346(8984): 1194-1196.  Thirteen women (mean age 62) caring for demented relatives (high stress) were compared with 13 controls matched for age (60 years old) and family income.  Ball subjects underwent a 3.5 mm punch biopsy.  Healing was assessed by photography of wound and response to hydrogen peroxide (healing defined as no foaming).  Wounds in stressed caregivers took significantly longer to heal (48.7 vs. 39.3 days, p,.05).  Furthermore, peripheral blood leukocytes (white blood cells) of caregivers produced significantly less interleukin-1 beta mRNA in response to lipolysaccharide stimulation (suggesting impaired functioning).

Koenig, H.G., George, L.K., Peterson, B.L. (1998).  Religiosity and remission from depression in medically ill older patients.  American Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 536-542.  One year prospective study of 87 medical inpatients with depressive disorder to determine predictors of remission. Twenty-eight physical health, mental health, social, and treatment factors were examined.  Investigators found that depressed patients who had strong intrinsic religious belief recovered over 70% faster from depression than did those with weaker religious commitment.  In a subgroup of patents whose physical illness was not improving (not responding to medical treatments), intrinsically religious patients recovered over 100% faster.  Other investigators have reported similar findings in children (Miller et al 1997) and elderly persons in Europe (Braam et al 1997).

Propst, L.R., Ostrom, R., Watkins, P., Dean, T., & Mashburn, D. (1992).  Comparative efficacy of religious and cognitive behavior therapy for the treatment of clinical depression in religious individuals.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60, 94-103.  Examined the effectiveness of using religion-based psychotherapy in the treatment of 59 depressed religious patients.  The religious therapy involved use of religious beliefs to counter irrational thoughts associated with depression.  Religious belief therapy resulted in significantly faster recovery from depression compared to standard secular cognitive-behavioral therapy.  What was surprising was that the benefits from religious-based therapy were evident among patients who received religious therapy from non-religious therapists.

Rabins, P.V., Fitting, M.D., Eastham, J., & Zabora, J. (1990). Emotional adaptation over time in caregivers for chronically ill elderly people.  Age and Aging, 19, 185-190.  Followed 62 caregivers of persons with either Alzheimer's disease or recurrent metastatic cancer, examining factors that predicted adaptation two years later.  Strong religious belief (p<.0001) and frequent social contacts were the two major predictors of adaptation in this group.

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