7. Stress, Trauma, and Mind Body Connection
Studied by: behavioral medicine, health psychology, psychoimmunology
Stress vs stressors: catastrophes, significant life changes, daily hassles
Appraising stressor: threat or challenge
Coping: problem focused vs emotion-focused
Stress tolerance, resilience
Allostatic load: biological stress of adapting to stress
Immunosuppression; reduce body’s resistance to viruses
Sympathetic adrenomedullary (SAM) system: mobilizes body’s resources for fight or flight
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system: releases cortisol
Immune system: lymphocytes, t-cells, b-cells, antigens, cytokines, overdrive, telomeres
Personality types: Type A, Type B
Stress related mental health illnesses: adjustment disorder, PTSD, acute stress disorder
Biological causes (potential): 2 short alleles of serotonin transporter gene, reduced hippocampal
volume
Treating stress-related disorders: biological interventions (surgery, cholesterol medications),
psychological interventions (emotional disclosure, biofeedback, relaxation and meditation, CBT,
crisis intervention, psychological debriefing, prolonged exposure therapy, anti-depressant
Stress inoculation training: for prevention
8. Panic, Anxiety, Obsessions
Fear vs Anxiety
Specific phobias causal factors: learning, prepared learning, short allele of serotonin transporter
= easier conditioning.
Specific phobias treatment: exposure therapy, modeling, VR, medications (ineffective alone)
Social phobia causal factor: childhood experience/trauma, cognitive biases, attributional habits
Social phobia treatment: cognitive reconstructing, disengage from social cues, antidepressants
Panic disorders/agoraphobia: panic attacks, fear of situation
Panic disorders/agoraphobia causal factors: overactive fear network, high startle reflex,
noradrenaline/serotonin activity, hypersensitivity to bodily sensations, conditioned responses,
anxiety sensitivity
Treating/helping panic: sense of control, being with a safe person, prolonged exposure to
situation (for agoraphobia), pain control treatment (PCT), anxiolytics, antidepressants, therapy +
medication
GAD causal factors: less tolerance for uncertainty sense of control, attentional biases believe
that worrying = beneficial, common genetic influences with depression, deficiencies in GABA
Treating GAD: benzodiazepines, buspirone, CBT
Obsessive disorders: obsession, compulsions
Obsessive disorders causal factors: mowrer’s 2 process theory of avoidance learning,
attentional biases, attempt to control thoughts = increase symptoms, high activity in frontal lobe
and basal ganglia
Treating OCD: exposure and response prevention, seretoenic drugs, neurosurgery
BDD: body dysmorphic disorder
Studied by: behavioral medicine, health psychology, psychoimmunology
Stress vs stressors: catastrophes, significant life changes, daily hassles
Appraising stressor: threat or challenge
Coping: problem focused vs emotion-focused
Stress tolerance, resilience
Allostatic load: biological stress of adapting to stress
Immunosuppression; reduce body’s resistance to viruses
Sympathetic adrenomedullary (SAM) system: mobilizes body’s resources for fight or flight
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system: releases cortisol
Immune system: lymphocytes, t-cells, b-cells, antigens, cytokines, overdrive, telomeres
Personality types: Type A, Type B
Stress related mental health illnesses: adjustment disorder, PTSD, acute stress disorder
Biological causes (potential): 2 short alleles of serotonin transporter gene, reduced hippocampal
volume
Treating stress-related disorders: biological interventions (surgery, cholesterol medications),
psychological interventions (emotional disclosure, biofeedback, relaxation and meditation, CBT,
crisis intervention, psychological debriefing, prolonged exposure therapy, anti-depressant
Stress inoculation training: for prevention
8. Panic, Anxiety, Obsessions
Fear vs Anxiety
Specific phobias causal factors: learning, prepared learning, short allele of serotonin transporter
= easier conditioning.
Specific phobias treatment: exposure therapy, modeling, VR, medications (ineffective alone)
Social phobia causal factor: childhood experience/trauma, cognitive biases, attributional habits
Social phobia treatment: cognitive reconstructing, disengage from social cues, antidepressants
Panic disorders/agoraphobia: panic attacks, fear of situation
Panic disorders/agoraphobia causal factors: overactive fear network, high startle reflex,
noradrenaline/serotonin activity, hypersensitivity to bodily sensations, conditioned responses,
anxiety sensitivity
Treating/helping panic: sense of control, being with a safe person, prolonged exposure to
situation (for agoraphobia), pain control treatment (PCT), anxiolytics, antidepressants, therapy +
medication
GAD causal factors: less tolerance for uncertainty sense of control, attentional biases believe
that worrying = beneficial, common genetic influences with depression, deficiencies in GABA
Treating GAD: benzodiazepines, buspirone, CBT
Obsessive disorders: obsession, compulsions
Obsessive disorders causal factors: mowrer’s 2 process theory of avoidance learning,
attentional biases, attempt to control thoughts = increase symptoms, high activity in frontal lobe
and basal ganglia
Treating OCD: exposure and response prevention, seretoenic drugs, neurosurgery
BDD: body dysmorphic disorder
