The Impacts of Psychological Disorders on the Immune System

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM 1
The Impacts of Psychological Disorders on the Immune System
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PSYCHOLOGY AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM 2
Basically, interaction of cellular products with cells forms the immune system. The main fighter
cells of the immune system are the white blood cells which are also known as leukocytes.
Monocytes, granulocytes and lymphocytes are the main categories of white blood cells (Beck,
2011). They all have different functions which jointly contributes to the overall immunity of an
individual. There are two basic means by which the immune response is measured. In
quantitative measurements, the percentage of each cell type in the blood while in functional
measurements, cells are exposed to mitogens and the exposure results then observed. The
immune system is directly impacted by an individual’s psychological state. Stress, for example,
has a variety of effects on the endocrine system. Such effects impact the activation of the well-
known flight or fight response which is achieved through the activation of the hypothalamic-
pituitary-adrenocortical (HPAC) system and the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) system
(Glaser & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2014).
Due to the nature of how the body deals with internal psychological factors such as stress, such
factors have been directly linked to causing a deficit in the immune system. In cases of chronic
stress, the autonomic nervous system is frequently activated, a factor which subsequently leads
to diminishing of the immune system capabilities (Martin, 2016). As such, the immune system is
significantly downgraded reducing its capacity to function continuously. Various large studies
have been conducted incorporating parents whose children are healthy and another group of
parents whose children suffered from cancer. The results indicated that the immune system’s
reactions to hormonal secretions are greatly reduced by chronic psychological stress. Such
reactions of the immune system normally play a significant role in fighting inflammatory
responses (Ranchor, Sanderman, & Coyne, 2010). It has also been concluded that the
effectiveness of the immune system is greatly affected by perceived moods. An increased ability

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM 3
to fight diseases by the immune system directly correlates with positive attitudes. A study of
patients undergoing surgical operations revealed that patients who were fearful before a surgery
took longer periods of time to heal.
Stress has also been known to have significant impacts on cardiovascular diseases. The
cardiovascular system could be decidedly negatively impacted by the natural response of the
flight or fight mechanism. Due to the fact that the flight or fight systems are activated by an
increase of the heart rate, the possibility of a heart attack and/or a wide range of other heart-
related diseases is increased by frequent activations (Hjemdahl, Rosengren, & Steptoe, 2011).
Even in health conditions that are relatively less dangerous, mood and stress have been linked to
slower recovery from such conditions. A research study revealed that people suffering from a
common cold but portraying happier emotions had a higher ability to fight off the cold in
contrast to people who were always sad or angry. Another study on students during an exam
period revealed that production of T-cells and their responses to mitogens was lower during the
entire examination period. Additionally, self-reports of diseases such as upper-respiratory-tract
infections occurrences were high (Lală, Bobîrnac, & Tipa, 2010).
The field of Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) has also raised concerns over whether stress causes
depression or the other way round. Determining which among the two plays a major role in
reducing the immune response of PNI, therefore, proves to be difficult. Stress can display itself
in many forms. Anxiety, depression, and various life events are some significant causes of stress
(Anisman, Hayley, & Kusnecov, 2018). Stress, on the other hand, has a potential of triggering
significant depressive disorders. There are various explanations that have been brought forth to
show how stress impacts the brain’s pleasure pathways and moods to causes stress. Exposure to
stress causes hyper-activeness of the glucocorticoid hormone which in turn results to the