According to research, people might vary in how well they can protect themselves from illness, depending on their personality traits and physiological differences
Anna L. Marsland, PhD, RN, at the Western Psychiatric Institute and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and her colleagues tested how 84 study participants responded to a vaccine for the viral infection known as hepatitis B. This vaccination prompts the immune system to mount a defense by introducing a tiny amount of the infectious agent into the body.
The study participants were also given a test to measure a personality trait called negative affect, or neuroticism. Individuals with high scores on tests of negative affect tend to be moody, nervous, and easily stressed.
The Neurosis Factor
Those study participants with higher scores on the neuroticism test also tended to have lower immune system responses to the hepatitis vaccine.
Previous studies have found that people with high scores for neuroticism tended to report more disease symptoms. "The findings support a link between 'trait negative affect' and the objective measure of antibody response to the vaccination. This raises the possibility that people who are high in 'trait negative affect' or neuroticism may have less protective immune responses," said Marsland.
How You Handle Stress
Marsland and her colleagues also asked the study participants to give a short video recorded speech in order to measure their physiological responses to a stressful event. The immune function of the study participants was reduced somewhat as a result of having to give a speech.
Those who had a lower immune response to the vaccination might be more vulnerable to the effects of stress or to the effects of a personality trait like neuroticism and therefore might be more vulnerable to disease. "This study provides initial evidence that individual differences in the magnitude of stress-induced reduction of immune function may be of clinical significance," said Marsland.
This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. |
