PSY353 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Genital Herpes, Infection, Sympathetic Nervous System
CHAPTER 9: Physical Disorders and Health Psychology
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE HEALTH
U.S. Surgeon General → at the beginning of the 20th century, the leading causes of death were:
- infectious diseases:
- pneumonia
- diphtheria
- tuberculosis
- typhoid fever
- measles
- gastrointestinal infections
• percentage of yearly total deaths from these diseases has been reduced greatly (38.9% → 4%)
• reduction represents the first revolution in public health that eliminated many infectious diseases and controlled many
more
• BUT the success of health-care system in reducing mortality from disease has revealed a more complex and challenging
problem:
• some major contributing factors to illness and death are psychological and behavioural
Psychological and social factors have profound effects on brain structure and function
• seem to influence:
- neurotransmitter activity
- secretion of neurohormones in the endocrine system
- gene expression
There is a complex interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors in the production and maintenance of psychological
disorders
• BUT psychological and social factors are important to a number of additional disorders:
- endocrinological disorders (diabetes)
- cardiovascular disorders
- disorders of the immune system (AIDS)
• These disorders are clearly physical disorders
• have known (or strongly inferred) physical causes and mostly observable physical pathology (genital herpes, damaged
heart muscle, malignant tumours, or measurable hypertension)
The study of how psychological and social factors affect physical disorders used to be distinct and somewhat separate from the
remainder of psychopathology
• psychosomatic medicine – psychological factors affected somatic (physical) function
• psychophysiological disorders – used to communicate a similar idea
• Such terms are less often used today → misleading:
• Describing as psychosomatic a disorder with an obvious physical component → gave the impression that psychological
disorders of mood and anxiety did not have a strong biological component
• This assumption is not viable
• Biological, psychological, and social factors are implicated in the cause and maintenance of virtually every disorder,
both mental and physical
Contribution of psychosocial factors to the aetiology and treatment of physical disorders is widely studied
• lowering stress levels and having a rich social network → associated with better health, living longer, and less cognitive
decline as one ages
• tragic physical and mental deterioration among elderlies who are removed from social networks of family and friends
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HEALTH AND HEALTH-RELATED BEHAVIOR
Second revolution in public health –shift in focus from infectious disease to psychological factors
2 closely related new fields of study have developed:
1. Behavioural medicine – knowledge derived from behavioural science is applied to the prevention, diagnosis, and
treatment of medical problems
• interdisciplinary field in which psychologists, physicians, and other health professionals work closely together to
develop new treatments and preventive strategies
2. Health psychology – not interdisciplinary, considered a subfield of behavioural medicine
• Practitioners study psychological factors that are important to the promotion and maintenance of health
• also analyse and recommend improvements in health-care systems and health-policy formation within the discipline of
psychology
Psychological and social factors influence health and physical problems in two distinct ways:
1. They can affect the basic biological processes that lead to illness and disease
2. Long-standing behaviour patterns may put people at risk to develop certain physical disorders
• Risky behaviours cause or contribute to a variety of physical disorders and disease
• Both these avenues can sometimes contribute to the aetiology or maintenance of disease
Genital herpes – incurable sexually transmitted infection
• 15.5% of Americans aged 14 to 49 years are infected by the herpes simplex virus affecting either oral or genital areas (
• concentrated in young adults → percentage in that group is much higher
• virus remains dormant until it is reactivated periodically
• When it recurs in the genital region → infected individuals experience any of a number of symptoms:
- pain, itching
- vaginal or urethral discharge
- ulcerative lesions (open sores) in the genital area → lesions recur approximately four times each year but can appear
more often
• Cases of genital herpes have increased dramatically over the years → psychological, behavioural, and biological reasons
• Although genital herpes is a biological disease → spreads rapidly because people choose not to reduce their risk by
changing their behaviour (simply using a condom)
• Stress also plays a role in triggering herpes recurrences
• Stress-control procedures (stress management) – seem to decrease recurrences of genital herpes, as well as the
duration of each episode
• most likely through the positive effects of such practices on the immune system
AIDS – disease of the immune system that is directly affected by stress
• so stress may promote the deadly progression of AIDS
• example of how psychological factors may directly influence biological processes
• variety of things we may choose to do put us at risk for AIDS: having unprotected sex or sharing contaminated needles
• large-scale behaviour modification to prevent acquisition of the disease → because there is no medical cure for AIDS
Other behavioural patterns contribute to disease
• roots of many of the leading causes of death (heart disease, cancer, and diabetes) →
• can be traced to lifestyle factors (smoking, diet, and physical activity)
Smoking – leading preventable cause of death in the US → cause nearly half a million of premature deaths every year
• reduces life expectancy by more than a decade
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Other unhealthy behaviours include:
- poor eating habits
- lack of exercise
- insufficient injury control (not wearing seat belts)
• these behaviours are grouped under the label lifestyle → mostly enduring habits that are an integral part of a
peso’s dail liig patte
The same kinds of causal factors active in psychological disorders (social, psychological, and biological) play a role in some
physical disorders
• BUT the factor attracting the most attention is stress → particularly the neurobiological components of the stress
response
THE NATURE OF STRESS
Hans Selye (1936) → one group of rats he injected with a certain chemical extract developed ulcers and other physiological
problems (atrophy of immune system tissues)
• BUT a control group of rats who received a daily saline (salty water) injection that should not have had any effect
developed the same physical problems
• daily injections themselves seemed to be the culprit rather than the injected substance
• many types of environmental changes produced the same results
• decided the cause of this nonspecific reaction was stress (borrowed from engineering term)
• accidental or serendipitous observation led to a new area of study: stress physiology
Stress physiology – the body goes through several stages in response to sustained stress: General adaptation syndrome (GAS):
Phase 1: a type of alarm response to immediate danger or threat
Phase 2: With continuing stress, we pass into a stage of resistance – we mobilize various coping mechanisms to respond to
the stress
Phase 3: if the stress is too intense or lasts too long, we may enter a stage of exhaustion – our bodies suffer permanent
damage or death
• Selye was not correct in all of the details of his theory
• BUT the idea that chronic stress may inflict permanent bodily damage or contribute to disease has been confirmed and
elaborated on in later years
“tress means many things in modern life
• In engineering:
• stress is the strain on a bridge when a heavy truck drives across it;
• stress is the response of the bridge to the tuk’s eight
• BUT stress is also a stimulus → the truck is a stesso fo the idge → just as being fired from a job or facing a
difficult final exam is a stimulus or stressor for a person
• varied meanings can create some confusion
• BUT we concentrate on stress as the physiological response of the individual to a stressor
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Document Summary
Surgeon general at the beginning of the 20th century, the leading causes of death were: infectious diseases: pneumonia diphtheria tuberculosis typhoid fever. Psychological and social factors have profound effects on brain structure and function seem to influence: neurotransmitter activity secretion of neurohormones in the endocrine system gene expression. These disorders are clearly physical disorders have known (or strongly inferred) physical causes and mostly observable physical pathology (genital herpes, damaged heart muscle, malignant tumours, or measurable hypertension) Such terms are less often used today misleading: describing as psychosomatic a disorder with an obvious physical component gave the impression that psychological disorders of mood and anxiety did not have a strong biological component. This assumption is not viable: biological, psychological, and social factors are implicated in the cause and maintenance of virtually every disorder, both mental and physical. Second revolution in public health shift in focus from infectious disease to psychological factors.
