Hugs and Cortisol Awakening Response the Next Day: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

Previous research suggests that affectionate touch such as hugs might downregulate stress systems such as the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. However, the current literature lacks in generalizability beyond the laboratory setting and outside the context of romantic relationships. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) is a measure of the HPA axis and is responsive to daily fluctuations in stress and social information. However, associations between affectionate touch and the CAR have never been assessed. This study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to measure daily hugging behaviors in 104 first-year college students and salivary cortisol to assess the CAR. Participants who reported more daily hugs in their social interactions had significantly smaller CARs the next morning compared to days they reported fewer hugs. This study contributes to the literature on social interactions and stress responsive systems and emphasizes the importance of assessing affectionate touch behaviors such as hugs that can be exchanged outside the context of romantic relationships.

Annual Research Review: Social relationships and the immune system during development.

A child's social relationships serve critical functions during development. The interface between a child's social world and their immune system, particularly innate immunity, which helped children survive in the face of infections, nutritional scarcity, and violence throughout human history, is the focus of this Annual Research Review. This article reviews the state of research on social relationships and innate immune inflammation during childhood. Warmth and rejection in childhood social relationships, as well as physical trauma and unpredictable social environments, were not consistently related to circulating inflammatory markers such as interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein during childhood. Instead, links between social environments and inflammation were observed in studies that focus on children with greater background risk factors, such as low family socioeconomic status, family history of mood disorders, or presence of chronic interpersonal stressors combined with acute episodic stressors. In addition, studies on worse childhood social environments and greater inflammation in adulthood were more consistent. Warmth and rejection in the social environment may be related to sensitivity of immune cells to the anti-inflammatory actions of glucocorticoids, though this is primarily observed in adolescent women at risk for depression. Additional mechanistic evidence suggests that greater warmth and less rejection are related to processes that regulate inflammation, including greater expression of the glucocorticoid receptor gene and lower expression of genes that are responsive to the pro-inflammatory transcription factor NF-kappa B. The article concludes by discussing implications of the interface between a child's social relationships and inflammation for mental health and other recent (on evolutionary timescales) health threats, as well as recommendations for future research, and recommendations for researchers interested in integrating inflammatory measures in developmental research.

Testing plausible biopsychosocial models in diverse community samples: Common pitfalls and strategies.

It is imperative that research interrogating the biological pathways linking stress processes to health continue to translate the results of basic, preclinical experimental research to diverse and under-represented populations, particularly those at elevated risk for morbidity and mortality. Conducting research within these populations and in community settings involves a number of challenges that ultimately contribute to their rarity and uneven quality in the scientific literature. In this review, we summarize the experiences and insights of members of an expert panel on this topic held at the 2018 meeting of the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology in Newport Beach, CA. The goals of the session were to identify challenges and share strategies for testing plausible biopsychosocial models within diverse community samples in order to encourage others and improve future research. The present paper is organized into three themes: 1) Recruitment and retention, 2) Collecting biological samples outside of the laboratory, 3) Data analysis, interpretation, and dissemination. Our goal in composing this overview of the conference session was to share within the field of psychoneuroendocrinology the challenges inherent in translating basic research to community populations.

Advancing social connection as a public health priority in the United States.

A robust body of scientific evidence has indicated that being embedded in high-quality close relationships and feeling socially connected to the people in one's life is associated with decreased risk for all-cause mortality as well as a range of disease morbidities. Despite mounting evidence that the magnitude of these associations is comparable to that of many leading health determinants (that receive significant public health resources), government agencies, health care providers and associations, and public or private health care funders have been slow to recognize human social relationships as either a health determinant or health risk marker in a manner that is comparable to that of other public health priorities. This article evaluates current evidence (on social relationships and health) according to criteria commonly used in determining public health priorities. The article discusses challenges for reducing risk in this area and outlines an agenda for integrating social relationships into current public health priorities. (PsycINFO Database Record

Utility of a salivary biosensor for objective assessment of surgery-related stress.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical utility of a salivary α-amylase (sAA) biosensor for assessing oral surgery-related stress responses and the differential effect of the personality trait of pain catastrophizing. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted in 76 healthy subjects who underwent elective removal of their third molars. Along with subjects' self-reports of anxiety and pain, biosensor-facilitated measurements of sAA levels were obtained at multiple time points during the preoperative consult, surgery, and postsurgical follow-up visits. In addition, subjects completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale at baseline. Mixed-effect regression models examined changes in sAA levels and self-report ratings within and across visits and the contribution of pain catastrophizing. RESULTS: The sAA levels were lower during surgery and postsurgical follow-up compared with the consult visit (P < .01). The sAA levels decreased during the surgery visit (P < .05) and did not change during the consult or follow-up visits. Individuals who reported greater helplessness to pain manifested higher sAA levels during the surgery visit (P < .05). Self-reported anxiety ratings were highest during the surgery visit, and pain ratings were highest during the follow-up visit. CONCLUSIONS: The sAA levels did not show the predicted increases during the surgery visit compared with the consult and postsurgical follow-up visits or increases during the surgery visit. However, individuals who reported responding to pain with helplessness had higher sAA levels in anticipation of surgery, providing proof of concept for the value of point-of-care assessments of surgery-induced stresses and the differential effect of personality traits.

Emotions, morbidity, and mortality: new perspectives from psychoneuroimmunology.

Negative emotions can intensify a variety of health threats. We provide a broad framework relating negative emotions to a range of diseases whose onset and course may be influenced by the immune system; inflammation has been linked to a spectrum of conditions associated with aging, including cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, Alzheimer's disease, frailty and functional decline, and periodontal disease. Production of proinflammatory cytokines that influence these and other conditions can be directly stimulated by negative emotions and stressful experiences. Additionally, negative emotions also contribute to prolonged infection and delayed wound healing, processes that fuel sustained proinflammatory cytokine production. Accordingly, we argue that distress-related immune dysregulation may be one core mechanism behind a large and diverse set of health risks associated with negative emotions. Resources such as close personal relationships that diminish negative emotions enhance health in part through their positive impact on immune and endocrine regulation.