Study says stress impedes immune system

CHRONIC PSYCHOLOGICAL stress makes our immune systems work less effectively according to an expert in health psychology.

Studies on older people suffering from stress have found that their immune systems function poorly as a result.

"Chronically stressed older people who were carers of sufferers of dementia were found to be more vulnerable to infectious diseases than a group of older people who didn't have such psychological stress," said Dr Kavita Vedhara, health psychologist and psychoneuroimmunologist at the University of Bristol in England.

Speaking in advance of a health psychology conference in Derry city tomorrow, Dr Vedhara explained how research has found that when older people under stress partake in stress management programmes, their immune systems function better.

"One study found that when a group of older people with chronic stress took part in weekly stress management programme over eight weeks, 50 per cent of them showed a clinically appropriate response to the influenza (flu) vaccine," she said.

An earlier study found that only 38 per cent of older people without major stress had a clinically appropriate response to the same vaccine. A clinically appropriate response to the flu vaccine is defined by a fourfold increase in antibody levels to at least one of the three viruses contained in the vaccine.

"We are now hoping to get funding to look at older people in primary care generally to see how psychological stress makes them more vulnerable to other physical diseases," she said.

Psychological stress in itself affects between 25 and 40 per cent of older people. Other studies have shown that chronic psychological stress also slows down wound-healing.

"We found that foot ulcers due to diabetes are slower to heal for individuals who also have high levels of psychological stress. Such people are also slower to come for advice and turn up at clinics with bigger foot ulcers," she added.

Charles Abraham, professor of psychology at the University of Sussex, England, will also speak at tomorrow's conference.

His research paper will look at the importance of developing a universal set of behaviour change techniques which will then allow researchers to replicate findings and understand more easily what specific behaviour leads to improvement in programmes for physical activity and weight loss.

Psychology, Health and Medicine, the fifth annual conference of the Health Psychology Division of the Psychological Society of Ireland will take take in the City Hotel, Derry tomorrow. It is held in association with the British Psychological Society Northern Ireland branch and the School of Psychology at the University of Ulster.