THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SECRETORY IMMUNITY, MOOD AND LIFE-EVENTS

Twelve subjects volunteered to take part in a short trial involving da ily life-event and mood recording over a period of up to two weeks. On each day subjects also provided timed saliva samples. Aggregated data across the trial period revealed that unstimulated secretion rate of secretory immunoglobulin A from whole saliva correlated strongly and s ignificantly with net desirable event reporting, defined as a subject' s tendency to report relatively frequent desirable events and relative ly infrequent undesirable events. Correlations with positive and negat ive mood were insignificant, although the pattern of results was in li ne with hypotheses. Within-subject analyses revealed a totally contrar y pattern of results. In particular, negative mood was significantly a ssociated with higher sIgA secretion rate. Analyses involving total sI gA concentration paralleled those using secretion rate. Results are di scussed in relation to psychoneuroimmunological models of illness vuln erability, particularly upper respiratory infection, and previous find ings in regard to secretory immunity.