Ashley M. Geiger

Differential Links Between Leisure Activities and Depressive Symptoms in Unemployed Individuals

OBJECTIVE Unemployment has consistently been linked to an elevated risk for depression. Exercise, specifically leisure-based physical activities, has received increasing attention as alternative treatment options. However, because leisure activities are pursued during discretionary time, it is unclear if the mental health benefits of physical and leisure activities apply during times of unemployment as well. METHOD Depressive symptoms and participation in recreational activities were assessed in 142 employed and 158 unemployed participants (age = 34 ± 11 years; male = 150). RESULTS Independent of employment status, all recreational activities were inversely associated with depressive symptoms. However, social (employed: ηp (2) = .21; unemployed: ηp (2) = .11) and self-focused (employed: ηp (2) = .19; unemployed: ηp (2) = .10) recreational activities were more strongly related to depressive symptoms than exercise (employed: ηp (2) = .12; unemployed: ηp (2) > .05). CONCLUSION These findings highlight the strong mental health associations of recreational activities and suggest that, particularly for unemployed individuals, promoting recreational activities, rather than exercise, may leverage the stronger negative relationship with risk of depression.

Cortisol-dependent stress effects on cell distribution in healthy individuals and individuals suffering from chronic adrenal insufficiency

Chronic adrenal insufficiency (CAI) is characterized by a lack of glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid production due to destroyed adrenal cortex cells. However, elevated cortisol secretion is thought to be a central part in a well-orchestrated immune response to stress. This raises the question to what extent lack of cortisol in CAI affects stress-related changes in immune processes. To address this question, 28 CAI patients (20 females) and 18 healthy individuals (11 females) (age: 44.3 ± 8.4 years) were exposed to a psychosocial stress test (Trier Social Stress Test: TSST). Half the patients received a 0.03 mg/kg body weight injection of hydrocortisone (HC) post-TSST to mimic a healthy cortisol stress response. Catecholamines and immune cell composition were assessed in peripheral blood and free cortisol measured in saliva collected before and repeatedly after TSST. CAI patients showed norepinephrine (NE) stress responses similar to healthy participants, however, epinephrine (E) as well as cortisol levels were significantly lower. HC treatment post-TSST resulted in cortisol increases comparable to those observed in healthy participants (interaction effects--NE: F=1.05, p=.41; E: F=2.56, p=.045; cortisol: F=13.28, p<.001). Healthy individuals showed the expected pattern of stress-related early lymphocyte increase with subsequent decrease below baseline. The opposite pattern was observed in granulocytes. While exhibiting a similar initial increase, lymphocytes kept increasing over the following 2h in untreated patients. HC treatment buffered this effect (interaction effects--lymphocyte%: F=7.31, p<.001; granulocyte%: F=7.71, p<.001). Using CAI in humans as a model confirms cortisols central involvement in post-stress lymphocyte migration from blood into immune-relevant body compartments. As such, future studies should investigate whether psychosocial stress exposure may put CAI patients at an increased health risk due to attenuated immune responses to pathogens.

Perceived Appearance Judgments Moderate the Biological Stress Effects of Social Exchanges

Social relationships are generally thought of as beneficial. However, the present study set out to test the hypothesis that for individuals who perceive others to judge their appearance negatively, daily social interactions can also be a source of stress. Indeed when assessing 38 young adults, we found that both more incidences of negative exchanges reported during the past month as well as perceived negative appearance judgments by others were associated with more self-reported stress. Interestingly, however, for individuals with low attribution body esteem, higher numbers of positive social exchanges during the past month were related to health-relevant changes in biological markers of chronic stress as well. The same was true for individuals with high attribution body esteem who reported to experience only very few positive exchanges. As such, these findings go beyond the initial focus on low body esteem and negative social exchanges and introduce high body esteem as well as daily positive exchanges as potential health risk factors.

Low subjective social status in the police is linked to health-relevant changes in diurnal salivary alpha-amylase activity in Swiss police officers

Abstract The objective of this study was to assess basal autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity as a pathway linking subjective social status to health in a high-demand work environment. It was hypothesized that officers with a lower status experienced more chronic stress (higher basal ANS activity) and that chronic stress was related to more health problems. Fifty-six male and female Swiss police officers self-reported on subjective social status (country, community, friends, police) and their health (depression, post-traumatic stress, physical symptoms) and collected 12 saliva samples over two days for basal α-amylase activation (sAA) assessment. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that subjective social status in the police and physical symptoms explained a significant part of the variance in diurnal sAA activity patterns. The current findings support the idea that more narrowly defined subjective social status may be more closely linked to biological stress mechanisms. Additionally, sAA activity was specifically related to physical, but not mental health problems. These results suggest that subjective social status referencing one’s work environment may be a promising early indicator of health-relevant changes in stress-related physiological systems.

Comparison group matters for chronic stress effects of subjective social status

Inconsistent associations between health and measures of subjective social status compared to one’s community suggest that how people define community may matter. This study broke down community into status among neighborhood and friends/family to assess the impact of each domain on chronic stress in individuals differing in socioeconomic status (18 employed and 18 unemployed individuals). The findings suggest that for ratings of subjective social status, the social and physical proximity of the reference group matters. Specifically, neighborhood status was affected by unemployment, while friends/family status was associated with perceived stress, emphasizing the importance of the comparison group in assessing subjective status.

Long-term pharmacological cortisol treatment in chronic adrenal insufficiency moderates stress effects on memory performance

Although individual stress reactions are adaptive, chronic stress has negative effects on psychological and physiological functioning. It is therefore important to investigate the dysregulation associated with chronic stress – in the brain and in the rest of the body. One way to conceptualize the causes and effects of chronic stress is “allostatic load”, which describes the bodily cost an organism has to carry for adapting to changing environments (McEwen, 1998). Allostatic load can be quantified through a multi-systemic and cumulative measurement, an allostatic load index. We collected data from 96 young (45 female; age: 24.8 ± 3.3, range: 20–35) and 74 elderly (37 female; age: 67.6 ± 4.7, range: 59–77) healthy participants that were part of the Leipzig Cohort for Mind-BodyEmotion Interactions (LEMON). In addition to blood samples, we acquired psychoand anthropometric information as well as measures of the central and the autonomic nervous system, through 3T-MRI and 3-lead ECG recordings, respectively. Neuroendocrine, immune, and metabolic markers were combined with cardiovascular and anthropometric measures to yield individual allostatic load indices. In between-subject analyses, we find that such a composite marker of allostatic load can be related to subjective stress reports, measures of heart rate variability during a 5-min resting period, brain structure (i.e., regional differences in grey matter density) as well as brain function (i.e., network connectivity during task-free resting-state fMRI). We show that an allostatic load index can help investigate inter-individual differences in psychophysiological markers of chronic stress and the brain’s adaptation to it.