Stress and Health

!     Behavioral Medicine- interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease

!     Health Psychology- subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine

What is Stress?

!     Stress- the process by which we perceive and respond to events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging

!     General Adaptation Syndrome- Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress as composed of three stages

!     Phase 1-Alarm reaction

!     Phase 2-Resistance

!     Phase 3-Exhaustion

Stressful Life Events

!     Catastrophic Events- earthquakes, combat stress, floods

!     Life Changes- death of a loved one, divorce, loss of a job, promotion

!     Daily Hassles- rush hour traffic, long lines, job stress, burnout

!     Perceived Control- loss of control can increase stress hormones

What is Stress? (Part 2)

!     Burnout- physical, emotional and mental exhaustion brought on by persistent job-related stress

!     Coronary Hear Disease- clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; leading cause of death in the US

Stress and Coronary Heart Disease

!     Type A- Friedman and Rosenman's term for people who are competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, anger-prone

!     Type B- Friedman and Rosenman's term for easygoing, relaxed people

Stress and Disease

!     Psychomatic Disease- psychologically caused physical symptoms

!     Psychophysiological Illness

!     "mind-body" illness

!     any stress-related physical illness

!     distinct from hypochondriasis- misinterpreting normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease

!     Lymphocytes- two types of white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system

!     B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections

!     T lymphocytes from the thymus and, among other duties, attack the cancer cells, viruses and foreign substances

Promoting Health

!     Aerobic Exercise- sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety

!     Biofeedback- system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state

!     Blood pressure

!     Muscle tension

Prevention

!     14% of US Gross Domestic Product is spent on health care

!     2/3 of organizations with less than 50 employees have health promoting programs

!     health assessments

!     fitness training

!     smoking cessation

!     stress management

Smoking

!     Some estimations show smoking kills about 20 loaded jumbo jets per day

!     Smoking is a pediatric disease

!     Rebellious youth

!     Modeling behavior, social rewards

!     Targeted ad campaigns

!     Why not quit? Nicotine delivery system

How to Quit

!     Education

!     Eliminate the social reinforcement

!     Increase social support for quitting

!     Cost

!     Tax it to shorten the time between behavior and punishment

!     Reduces smoking by 4% for every 10% increase cost

!     Nicotine Replacement -Patch and Gum

!     Reduce pharmacological addiction

!     Then treat psychological addiction

Bibliography

Myers, David G., Psychology Fifth Edition. Worth Publishers, Inc. New York, NY ©1998