A functional genomic perspective on human well-being.

To identify molecular mechanisms underlying the prospective health advantages associated with psychological well-being, we analyzed leukocyte basal gene expression profiles in 80 healthy adults who were assessed for hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, as well as potentially confounded negative psychological and behavioral factors. Hedonic and eudaimonic well-being showed similar affective correlates but highly divergent transcriptome profiles. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from people with high levels of hedonic well-being showed up-regulated expression of a stress-related conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA) involving increased expression of proinflammatory genes and decreased expression of genes involved in antibody synthesis and type I IFN response. In contrast, high levels of eudaimonic well-being were associated with CTRA down-regulation. Promoter-based bioinformatics implicated distinct patterns of transcription factor activity in structuring the observed differences in gene expression associated with eudaimonic well-being (reduced NF-κB and AP-1 signaling and increased IRF and STAT signaling). Transcript origin analysis identified monocytes, plasmacytoid dendritic cells, and B lymphocytes as primary cellular mediators of these dynamics. The finding that hedonic and eudaimonic well-being engage distinct gene regulatory programs despite their similar effects on total well-being and depressive symptoms implies that the human genome may be more sensitive to qualitative variations in well-being than are our conscious affective experiences.

How positive emotions build physical health: perceived positive social connections account for the upward spiral between positive emotions and vagal tone.

The mechanisms underlying the association between positive emotions and physical health remain a mystery. We hypothesize that an upward-spiral dynamic continually reinforces the tie between positive emotions and physical health and that this spiral is mediated by people's perceptions of their positive social connections. We tested this overarching hypothesis in a longitudinal field experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group that self-generated positive emotions via loving-kindness meditation or to a waiting-list control group. Participants in the intervention group increased in positive emotions relative to those in the control group, an effect moderated by baseline vagal tone, a proxy index of physical health. Increased positive emotions, in turn, produced increases in vagal tone, an effect mediated by increased perceptions of social connections. This experimental evidence identifies one mechanism-perceptions of social connections-through which positive emotions build physical health, indexed as vagal tone. Results suggest that positive emotions, positive social connections, and physical health influence one another in a self-sustaining upward-spiral dynamic.

Open hearts build lives: positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources.

B. L. Fredrickson's (1998, 2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions asserts that people's daily experiences of positive emotions compound over time to build a variety of consequential personal resources. The authors tested this build hypothesis in a field experiment with working adults (n = 139), half of whom were randomly-assigned to begin a practice of loving-kindness meditation. Results showed that this meditation practice produced increases over time in daily experiences of positive emotions, which, in turn, produced increases in a wide range of personal resources (e.g., increased mindfulness, purpose in life, social support, decreased illness symptoms). In turn, these increments in personal resources predicted increased life satisfaction and reduced depressive symptoms. Discussion centers on how positive emotions are the mechanism of change for the type of mind-training practice studied here and how loving-kindness meditation is an intervention strategy that produces positive emotions in a way that outpaces the hedonic treadmill effect.

Remission after acute treatment in children and adolescents with anxiety disorders: findings from the CAMS.

OBJECTIVE: To report on remission rates in anxious youth who participated in the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study (CAMS). The CAMS, a multisite clinical trial, randomized 488 children and adolescents (ages 7-17 years; 79% Caucasian; 50% female) with separation, social, and/or generalized anxiety disorder to a 12-week treatment of sertraline (SRT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), their combination (COMB), or clinical management with pill placebo (PBO). METHOD: The primary definition of remission was loss of all study-entry anxiety disorder diagnoses; additional definitions of remission were used. All outcomes were rated by independent evaluators blind to treatment assignment. Predictors of remission were also examined. RESULTS: Remission rates after 12 weeks of treatment ranged from 46% to 68% for COMB, 34% to 46% for SRT, 20% to 46% for CBT, and 15% to 27% for PBO. Rates of remission (i.e., achieving a nearly symptom-free state) were significantly lower than rates of response (i.e., achieving a clinically meaningful improvement relative to baseline) for the entire sample. Youth who received COMB had significantly higher rates of remission compared to all other treatment groups. Both monotherapies had higher remission rates compared to PBO, but rates were not different from each other. Predictors of remission were younger age, nonminority status, lower baseline anxiety severity, absence of other internalizing disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression), and absence of social phobia. CONCLUSIONS: For the majority of children, some symptoms of anxiety persisted, even among those showing improvement after 12 weeks of treatment, suggesting a need to augment or extend current treatments for some children.