The influence of psychological stress on immunoregulation of latent Epstein-Barr virus

✍ Scribed by Benschop, R. J. ;Jabaaij, L. ;Oostveen, F. G. ;Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M. ;Ballieux, R. E.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 148 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0748-8386
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1700(199801)14:1<21::aid-smi753>3.0.co;2-f

✦ Synopsis

Two studies are presented on the in¯uence of psychological factors on immunoregulation of latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. In the ®rst study, 121 students completed questionnaires on daily hassles, psychoneurotic symptoms, coping styles and loneliness. No signi®cant association between these psychological measures and levels of antibodies to EBV was found. It was reasoned that this might be explained by the fact that the psychological stress levels were generally low. Therefore, in a second study, from a larger population of 390 students, 95 subjects were selected based on low or high scores on a daily hassles and a psychoneurotic symptom checklist. No signi®cant relationship was found between psychological variables and EBV antibody titres or speci®c cytotoxic activity against autologous EBV-transformed B cells. It is concluded that in the cross-sectional studies presented, the psychological factors measured are not related to immune control of latent EBV.