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Biomedical subjects

J Kiecolt-Glaser

Publications and source records attributed to J Kiecolt-Glaser.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Changes in plasma nerve growth factor levels in older adults associated with chronic stress.

Evidence indicates that the actions of nerve growth factor (NGF) reach beyond the nervous system and might modulate immune function. Based on reports that blood NGF rises following the acute stress of parachute jumping, we investigated whether exposure to a chronic stressor, caregiving for a cognitively impaired spouse, could alter the levels of blood NGF. High perceived stress and depression in caregivers (vs. well-matched controls) were associated with elevated blood NGF. These data suggest that exposure to this chronic stressor can alter the concentrations of circulating NGF, and that psychological stress can induce changes in NGF concentrations in older adults.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Research on physiological and physical concomitants of caregiving: where do we go from here?

This article discusses the current state of research on the physiological and physical concomitants of caregiving. We offer recommendations about theoretical, empirical, and treatment issues that researchers should consider in future investigations. Important theoretical issues include specifying acute and chronic stress in caregiving research. Empirical issues include sample selection, home versus clinic assessments, the use of experimental probes, moderating and mediating variables, and measurement issues (problems with self-report of health, medical records, physical exams, and lab assessments). Finally, we note that investigators should use this newfound knowledge to target interventions to specific subsets of vulnerable caregivers. In this way, basic research into caregiving, as a model of chronic human stress, can provide more focused approaches to benefit both caregivers and patients.

Arousal↗
PubMed1995

A symmetric analysis of paired rankings with application to temporal patterns of hormonal concentration.

Mallows (1957, Biometrika 44, 114-130) introduced a simple model to describe the distribution of subjects' rankings of the items from some fixed set. Both Feigin (1992, in Probability Models and Statistical Analyses for Ranking Data, 75-91. New York: Springer-Verlag) and Critchlow and Verducci (1992, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series C 41, 17-29) have considered an asymmetric extension of this model, designed to analyze the distribution of subjects' post-treatment rankings, conditional on their pretreatment rankings. Here a symmetric extension is introduced and is used to analyze the joint distribution of paired rankings associated with the patterns of prolactin hormonal response of wife-husband pairs during the course of a marital conflict. Locally most powerful tests are developed to check for independence of the wife and husband responses, and for differences in their divergence from a theoretical pattern of response. Additionally, conditional on the rankings of one group (e.g., the wives), the locally most powerful test of an affinity for the theoretical pattern in the other group (e.g., the husbands) turns out to be closely related to the test given by Critchlow and Verducci.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Group therapy for bulimia.

Thirty women meeting DSM-III criteria for bulimia were seen weekly in a group setting using behavioral techniques and insight-oriented discussion. Pre- and post-measures using the EAT, Marlowe Crowne Social Desirability Scale, Rotter Locus of Control, and SCL-90-R self-rating scales were performed on 11 group completers. Two comparison groups consisted of bulimic women who received either no treatment or individual psychotherapy. The differences on the parameters measured in comparing group therapy, individual therapy, and no treatment subject groups would suggest that a group therapy approach holds promise for an otherwise poor prognosis disorder and that the changes are measureable.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Predicting offspring vulnerability to psychopathology from parents' test data.

Interpretation of parents' psychological test data was used to predict vulnerability to psychopathology of male offspring ages 4, 7, and 10. Families were chosen for the study according to the previous psychiatric diagnosis of at least one parent. The prediction of procedure was styled after methods used in previous studies with adolescent and young adult offspring. Vulnerability was measured by a global rating score obtained from the Rochester Adaptive Behavior Inventory, a scale based on behavioral observations of the offspring's behavior. Evaluation of 11 families at each age level resulted in significantly accurate predictions at the 10-year-old level, but less than significantly accurate predictions at the 7- and 4-year-old levels. These findings have important implications for the family development of schizophrenia and related disorders.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The impact of emotions on cardiovascular health.

Recent research suggests that the maintenance of emotional well-being is critical to cardiovascular health. People who feel lonely, depressed, and isolated have been found to be significantly more likely to suffer illnesses and to die prematurely of cardiovascular diseases than those who have adequate social support. Consequently, the development of appropriate interventions to improve the emotional health of people with certain psychosocial risk factors has become an important research goal. It is anticipated that such interventions will increase the life expectancy of people at risk and that it may also save millions of dollars in medical care costs. First, however, researchers in this field must identify specific emotional risk factors and must agree upon a working definition of "good emotional health." Such explicit definitions, as well as additional data, are essential to educating physicians and insurers so that consideration of emotional health can be integrated into basic medical care.

Cardiovascular Diseases↗