Authors
Geller, Jeffrey L.UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of PsychiatryDocument Type
Letter to the EditorPublication Date
1990-04-01Keywords
HumansMental Disorders
Prognosis
*Social Adjustment
*Social Environment
*Social Work, Psychiatric
Health Services Research
Mental and Social Health
Psychiatric and Mental Health
Psychiatry
Psychiatry and Psychology
Metadata
Show full item recordSource
Hosp Community Psychiatry. 1990 Apr;41(4):455-6.Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/45094PubMed ID
2332235Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedCollections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Physiological and Social Stress on Cognitive PerformanceNagatti, Doreet; Anina, Daniele; Daigle, Maria; O'Brien, Kymberlee M. (2016-05-20)Humans are highly social creatures and this provides us with a number of benefits, such as protection and support, but it also brings new avenues for stress from social sources. Basic and translational neuroendocrine research has yielded a rich set of findings and a general understanding of how acute and chronic stress can result in reduced health, earlier aging, and earlier death. Although stress can be indexed by level of cortisol, the major stress hormone in humans, many interrelated physiological systems are involved in a stress response, including the cardio and vascular systems. Research toward greater understanding of stress buffering mechanisms holds value for improved human health in the face of entrenched social stressors. In particular, acute and chronic stress have consistently been found to impair cognitive performance, Many adults in high stress environments also face a changing social landscape during college years: changes in living partners, less control over noise, sleep, exercise, and nutrition. In this pilot investigation, we are interested in measuring the influences of acute stress on cognitive performance and whether social support, a factor that is modifiable, would be protective on the multi-systems relationships between stress and cognition. Broadly, we found (1) that higher levels of cortisol measured in saliva was associated with a faster return to resting levels of salivary cortisol (a measure of flexible, adaptive functioning of the central HPA stress system) after the stressor is removed and may also be associated with lower cortisol in the initial response to the stressor. In parallel, we found (2) that higher levels of cortisol were associated with impaired cognitive performance after the stress task, (3) finally, we found that those reporting high social support showed faster recovery to baseline in the cardiovascular systems and greater social support produced some buffering of stress response on their post-stress cognitive performance.
-
Weight loss support seeking on twitter: the impact of weight on follow back rates and interactionsMay, Christine N.; Waring, Molly E.; Rodrigues, Stephanie; Oleski, Jessica L.; Olendzki, Effie; Evans, Martinus M.; Carey, Jennifer; Pagoto, Sherry L. (2017-03-01)People seek weight loss support on online social networks, but little is known about how to build a supportive community. We created four Twitter accounts portraying women interested in weight loss (two obese, two normal weight/overweight) and followed health care professional and peer accounts for 2-5 weeks. We examined follow back rates, interactions, and organic follows from professionals and peers by weight status. Follow back rates did not differ by weight status when following professionals (6.8 % normal weight/overweight vs 11.0 % for obese; p = 0.4167) or peers (6.7 % for normal weight/overweight vs 10.8 % for obese; p = 0.1548). Number of interactions and organic followers also did not differ by weight status. Peers interacted with study accounts significantly more than professionals (p = 0.0138), but interactions were infrequent. Women seeking weight loss support on Twitter may need to be present for more than 5 weeks to build an interactive weight loss community.
-
Relation of childhood socioeconomic status and family environment to adult metabolic functioning in the CARDIA studyLehman, Barbara J.; Taylor, Shelley E.; Kiefe, Catarina I.; Seeman, Teresa E. (2005-11-30)OBJECTIVE: Low SES and a conflict-ridden, neglectful, or harsh family environment in childhood have been linked to a high rate of physical health disorders in adulthood. The objective of the present investigation was to evaluate a model of the pathways that may help to explain these links and to relate them to metabolic functioning (MF) in the Coronary Artery Risk Development In Young Adults (CARDIA) dataset. METHODS: Participants (n = 3225) in the year 15 assessment of CARDIA, age 33 to 45 years, completed measures of childhood socioeconomic status (SES), risky early family environment (RF), adult psychosocial functioning (PsyF, a latent factor measured by depression, hostility, positive and negative social contacts), and adult SES. Indicators of the latent factor MF were assessed, specifically, cholesterol, insulin, glucose, triglycerides, and waist circumference. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 9.7%. Structural equation modeling indicated that childhood SES and RF are associated with MF via their association with PsyF (standardized path coefficients: childhood SES to RF -0.13, RF to PsyF 0.44, PsyF to MF 0.09, all p < .05), but also directly (coefficient from childhood SES to MF -0.12, p < .05), with good overall model fit. When this model was tested separately for race-sex subgroups, it fit best for white women, fit well for African-American women and white men, but did not fit well for African-American men. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that childhood SES and early family environment contribute to metabolic functioning through pathways of depression, hostility, and poor quality of social contacts.