Psychological investigation of genital herpes recurrence: prospective assessment and cognitive-behavioral intervention for a chronic physical disorder

Previous studies suggest that anxiety and/or depressed mood are associated with recurrence of genital herpes lesions. The present study sought to extend the assessment of factors associated with genital herpes and to investigate the impact of psychological therapy on features of the disorder. Sixteen genital herpes patients received 5 weeks of either structured discussion or cognitive restructuring (CR) therapy in a group format. Measures of attitude about herpes, global coping, distress, loneliness, health locus of control, and recurrence frequency were administered at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 3 months follow-up. Patients also made daily reports during the 5 weeks of treatment from which information was extracted regarding their herpes symptoms, dysphoria, anxiety, and ongoing coping process. Therapy did not produce the expected reductions in reported distress or loneliness. The CR procedure, however, was associated with reduced frequency of lesion recurrence at follow-up. Avoidant coping was associated with lower recurrence rates, and loneliness scores were associated with higher recurrence rates. Prospective data indicated that recurrences were preceded by elevated anxiety that was independent of prodromal symptoms. These results provide support for the general proposals that psychological factors influence health status and that psychological intervention may reduce disease recurrence.     

Studies of psychosocial influences on coronary artery atherogenesis in cynomolgus monkeys

The cynomolgus macaque provides a suitable primate model for studying how psychosocial factors contribute to coronary artery atherogenesis. Important interactions with diet, sex, and behaviorally elicited cardiovascular reactivity are described.     

The relationship among genital herpes simplex virus, stress, and social support

Despite widespread popular belief in the activation of recurrent lesions in genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) by psychosocial stress, little empirical evidence supports that contention. This study retrospectively examined the role of stress in activation of HSV lesions as mediated by social support. Participants were 59 volunteers who had self-reported culture-positive genital HSV for at least 10 months. Measures of stress proneness (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; STAI-Trait), recent stressful events (Schedule of Recent Events; SRE), and subjective appraisal of stress (global self-rating) were administered along with measures of general social support and herpes-specific social support. When retrospective reports of HSV symptoms were examined using a multiple-regression approach, duration of disease and amount of herpes-specific social support were found to be significant moderators of the relation between stress and number of HSV recurrences in the preceding 12 months. When duration of disease was short (less than 4 years), stress (SRE) and number of recurrences were positively associated; when disease duration was longer, there was no relationship. Similarly, at low levels of herpes-specific social support, a positive relation between stress (SRE) and number of recurrences was found. However, at higher levels of herpes-specific social support, no association was found. No relation was found between stress proneness (STAI-Trait) and HSV symptoms. However, subjective appraisal (global rating) of stress in the preceding 12 months was positively and significantly correlated with reported number of recurrences. Results are discussed in terms of their clinical implications.     

Smoking, caffeine, and stress: effects on blood pressure and heart rate in male and female college students

This study examined the independent and joint effects of cigarette smoking and caffeine consumption on blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) reactions to stress in male and female college students. Following an initial physiological baseline, participants received one of four experimental treatments (paced smoking, caffeine, smoking plus caffeine, or neither) and had BP and HR measured before, during, and after two stressful tasks. The results revealed that, compared with the control condition, caffeine ingestion enhanced the magnitude of stress-induced systolic BP and HR reactions. Smoking combined additively with stress, and the joint effect of smoking and caffeine was no greater than either taken alone. Males and females were generally similar in their BP and HR responses to smoking, caffeine, and stress. Inconsistencies with previous research and possible physiological mechanisms underlying the observed effects are discussed.     

Analogical transfer, problem similarity, and expertise

When we encounter a new problem, we are often reminded of similar problems solved earlier and may use the solution procedure from an old problem to solve a new one. Such analogical transfer, however, has been difficult to demonstrate empirically, even within a single experimental session. This article proposes a framework for conceptualizing analogical problem solving that can account for the conflicting findings in the literature. In addition, the framework leads to two predictions concerning the transfer behavior of experts and novices. These predictions concern both positive and negative transfer and are based on the different types of features included in the problem representations of experts and novices. First, when two problems share structural features but not surface features, spontaneous positive transfer should be more likely in experts than in novices. Second, when two problems share surface but not structural features, spontaneous negative transfer should be stronger for novices than for experts. These predictions were supported by the results of three experiments involving college students solving a complex arithmetic word problem.     

Long-term memory in amnesia: cued recall, recognition memory, and confidence ratings

We explored what kind of information is acquired when amnesic patients are able to exhibit significant retention on tests of cued recall and recognition memory. Amnesic patients and control subjects attempted to learn sets of sentences. Memory for the last word in each sentence was tested after 1 hr in the case of the amnesic patients, or after 1 to 2 weeks in the case of (delayed) control subjects. Amnesic patients and (delayed) control subjects performed at similar levels on tests of cued recall and recognition memory. Amnesic patients were just as confident of their correct answers as were control subjects. However, amnesic patients were no more disadvantaged than control subjects when they were cued indirectly by presenting paraphrases of the original sentences. These findings demonstrate that the residual knowledge retained by amnesic patients can be as flexible, as accessible to indirect cues, and as available to awareness as the knowledge retained by (delayed) control subjects.