Personality factors, stress and immunity

Stress has been shown to have an association with immune changes. In this s tudy, the effects of examination stress were studied in a group of 10 postg raduate students. Parameters measured included the seriousness of illness r ating scale, the test of trait anxiety and the subjective appraisal of stre ssfulness of exams. Immunological parameters assessed included full blood c ounts, enumeration of lymphocytes and their subsets; lymphocyte proliferati ve responses to mitogens (phytohaemagglutinin, concavalin A, pokeweed mitog en) and antigen (purified protein derivative); neutrophil phagocytosis; int racellular killing ability and oxidative mechanisms of intracellular killin g by,assessing the reduction of nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT). Biochemical pa rameters assessed included glucose, cortisol, TSH, prolactin, ACTH and DHEA levels in serum. The results suggest a positive association between phagoc yte functions (early phagocytosis and NE T reduction) and both trait anxiet y and the perception of threat. Decreased lymphocyte proliferation in respo nse to mitogens and antigen was associated with trait anxiety. These result s suggest that students who are anxious and see exams as a threat display m ore efficient phagocyte functions, but decrease proliferation of their lymp hocytes at a time of stress. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.