The present report meta-analyzes more than 300 empirical articles describing a relationship between psychological stress and parameters of the immune system in human participants. Acute stressors (lasting minutes) were associated with potentially adaptive upregulation of some parameters of natural immunity and downregulation of some functions of specific immunity. Brief naturalistic stressors (...

Cognitive reactivity (CR) is a psychological vulnerability marker of depression, whereas response to acute tryptophan depletion (ATD; a serotonergic challenge procedure) is a biological vulnerability marker. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between these markers. Thirty-nine remitted depressed patients participated in 2 ATD sessions in a double-blind crossover design. C...

Students' perceptions of their safety and vulnerability were investigated in 11 public middle schools (more than 70 sixth-grade classrooms) that varied in ethnic diversity. Results of hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicate that higher classroom diversity is associated with feelings of safety and social satisfaction. African American (n= 511) and Latino (n= 910) students felt safer in sc...

This study tested whether specific dark-side traits may be beneficial in manifesting and maintaining Resilience, whilst others are vulnerability factors for Burnout. Four hundred and fifty-one (50 female) ambulance personnel completed three questionnaires as a part of a selection and development assessment. The study utilised the Hogan Development survey as a measure of dark side personality, t...

Etiology of depressive disorders is still unknown. Several factors are involved in its pathophysiology such as neurotransmitters and neuroendocrine alterations, genetics, life events and their appraisal. Some of these components are strictly linked. Subjects with a family member affected by mood disorders are more prone to suffer from depressive disorders. It is also true that receiving feedbac...

In settings of armed conflict, traditional HIV prevention programmes that promote risk avoidance via abstinence and fidelity and risk reduction via condom use and needle exchange are not viable. In such contexts, HIV risk depends less on personal choice than on exposure to physical, emotional and structural violence. War in northern Uganda has created three realities (internally displaced peopl...

The study examines how physical activity buffers the development of anxiety symptoms in response to racerelated stress and negative youth experiences. The participants are 72 adolescent females from an understudied population of rural African American students residing in South Central Louisiana. Recent literature suggests that physical fitness increases one’s ability to cope with psychological...

BACKGROUND This paper examines the association between exposure to the Chornobyl nuclear power plant explosion and the psychological and physical well-being of mothers with young children. The study also examines whether exposure to Chornobyl increased the vulnerability of mothers to subsequent economic and social stress, and thus represents a unique test of the stress-vulnerability model in a ...

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe, chronic disease with a heritability of 60-80%. BD is frequently misdiagnosed due to phenomenological overlap with other psychopathologies, an important issue that calls for the identification of biological and psychological vulnerability and disease markers. Altered structural and functional connectivity, mainly between limbic and prefrontal brain areas, have ...