Methods: Using the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey, personality traits were assessed in 2359 participants (38% women; age = 17 to 98 years, mean = 50 years) from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, starting in 1958. Over the duration of the study, 943 (40%) participants died, on average 18 years after their personality assessment. The association of each trait with longevity was examined by Cox regression controlling for demographic variables.

Results: In preliminary analyses among the deceased, those who scored 1 standard deviation (SD) above the mean on General Activity (a facet of Extraversion), Emotional Stability (low Neuroticism), or Conscientiousness lived on average 2 to 3 years longer than those scoring 1 SD below the mean. Survival analyses on the full sample confirmed the association of General Activity, Emotional Stability, and Conscientiousness with lower risk of death, such that every 1-SD increase was related to about 13%, 15%, and 27% risk reduction, respectively. The association of personality traits with longevity was largely independent from the influence of smoking and obesity. Personality predictors of longevity did not differ by sex, except for Ascendance (a facet of Extraversion). Emotional Stability was a significant predictor when the analyses were limited to deaths due to cardiovascular disease, with comparable effect sizes for General Activity and Conscientiousness.

Conclusions: In a large sample of generally healthy individuals followed for almost five decades, longevity was associated with being conscientious, emotionally stable, and active.

Methods: We performed power spectral analysis on 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiograms in 288 middle-aged male twins. Log-normalized ultra low, very low, low, high frequency, and total power were calculated. A lifetime history of major depressive disorder (MDD) was determined, using the Structured Clinical Interview for Psychiatry Disorders, and current depressive symptoms were measured with the Beck Depression Inventory. Mixed-effect regression models were used to account for intrapair variability and estimate within-pair effects at the same time controlling for potential confounders.

Results: Both current depressive symptoms and a history of MDD were significantly associated with lower HRV. There was a graded effect, and power in each frequency band was 29% to 36% lower in the lowest band compared with the highest BDI category. All HRV measures except high frequency remained significantly associated with current depressive symptoms in multivariable analysis, but not with lifetime history of MDD. When analyses were stratified by zygosity, a significant within-pair association between BDI score and HRV was found in the dizygotic but not in the monozygotic twins, suggesting a genetic influence on the association.

Conclusions: A shared, genetically influenced biological pathway underlies the association between depression and lower HRV. These two phenotypes may be the expression of a generalized neurobiological perturbation.

Methods: The monkeys were free of atherosclerosis before being fed a diet containing moderate amounts of fat and cholesterol for 52 months. Depressed behavior and activity levels recorded in weekly 15-minute focal samples, telemetered 24-hour heart rate, plasma total (TPC) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC), luteal phase serum progesterone concentrations, basal cortisol, cortisol response to corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH), and CAA extent were assessed.

Results: Time spent in depressed behavior over 4 years was significantly associated with early CAA (r = .73, p < .001), as were activity level, 24-hour heart rate, TPC, HDLC, cortisol response to CRH, and mean peak progesterone (all p ≤ 0.05). Depressed females had four times the CAA compared with nondepressed females.

Conclusions: Depression in primates is associated with perturbations in multiple CHD risk factors and accelerated early atherogenesis. These data are consistent with the hypotheses that depression and CAA both stem from a common mechanism and that depression may cause CAA.

Methods: Subjects were 851 men and women, 30 to 54 years of age (Caucasian = 77%, African-American = 23%). Individual SES was indexed by a composite of educational attainment and family income, and community SES was indexed by corresponding indicators derived from US Census data for participants’ census tracts of residence. Plasma concentrations of IL-6 and CRP were determined from blood samples.

Results: Regression analyses adjusting for age, sex, and race showed individual SES to be associated inversely with IL-6 (B = –0.126, p < .01), and community SES to be associated inversely with both IL-6 and CRP (B = –0.144, p < .01, B = –0.097, p < .01, respectively). The relationship of community SES with IL-6, but not CRP, persisted on multivariable adjustment for both lifestyle risk factors (smoking, alcohol consumption, sleep, exercise, body mass index) and individual SES (IL-6: B = –0.084, p < .05; CRP: B = –0.047, p > .10). After adjustment for lifestyle factors, however, individual SES was no longer associated with IL-6.

Conclusions: Independent of personal income or educational attainment, midlife adults living in less advantaged neighborhoods exhibit higher levels of circulating proinflammatory markers than residents of more affluent areas. This association may help explain the increased risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular morbidity and mortality conferred by low community-level SES.

Methods: Blood pressure and heart rate (HR) were measured at rest and in response to a brief time-pressured mental arithmetic stress in 1647 adults. At the same session and 5 years later, height, weight, waist and hip circumference were measured and body mass index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio were computed. Obesity was defined as a body mass index of ≥30kg/m².

Results: Contrary to expectations, the most robust and consistent results to emerge from cross-sectional analyses were negative associations between all three measures of adiposity and HR reactivity; those with greater BMI and waist-hip ratios and those categorized as obese displayed smaller HR reactions to stress. In prospective analyses, high HR reactivity was associated with a reduced likelihood of becoming obese in the subsequent 5 years.

Conclusions: Our analyses suggest that it is low, not high, HR reactivity that is related to adiposity. Low HR reactivity, probably by reflecting generally blunted sympathetic nervous system reactions to challenge, may be a risk marker for developing obesity.

Methods: Eighty-nine participants performed a speech in front of an evaluative panel (SET) or in one of two nonexplicitly evaluative conditions. Participants indicated the frequency of the thoughts they experienced during a 10-minute rest period after the speech as a measure of posttask rumination. Salivary cortisol was collected at five time points throughout the session.

Results: The SET condition elicited more posttask rumination than the nonexplicitly evaluative conditions. Posttask rumination was associated with amplified and prolonged elevations in cortisol across all conditions. Trait depressive rumination was associated with blunted cortisol responses in the SET condition. There was no association between trait depressive rumination and cortisol responses in the nonexplicitly evaluative conditions.

Conclusion: Results suggest that the nature of the relationship between cortisol activation and rumination may be contingent on how rumination is conceptualized and measured.

Method: Using Cox regressions, we assessed PTSD, age, race, intelligence, family history, obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse, antisocial personality, and depression in predicting HD mortality at follow-up in December 31, 2000. The men were <65 years old at follow-up.

Results: Using two PTSD measures, a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd Edition (DSM-III) measure (D-PTSD) and one developed by Keane (K-PTSD), we found that among Vietnam theater and era veterans combined (era veterans had no Vietnam service), having PTSD was associated with HD mortality for D-PTSD (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.25, p = .045) and approached significance for K-PTSD (HR = 2.16, p = .066). However, having higher PTSD symptoms on either scale was associated with mortality, with a 5-point increase associated with ~20% increase in mortality risk (all p < .05). Controlling for lifetime depression only slightly altered the results. The effects for theater veterans alone were stronger (D-PTSD: HR = 2.58, p = .025; K-PTSD: HR = 2.73, p = .022). Among theater veterans, controlling for lifetime depression or combat exposure made little difference.

Conclusion: PTSD was prospectively associated with HD mortality among veterans free of HD at baseline. This study suggests that early-age HD may be an outcome after military service among PTSD-positive veterans.

Methods: One hundred thirteen women on active treatment for gynecological cancer completed measures at baseline, 3, 6, and 9 months afterward.

Results: Women with poorer physician-rated performance status and self-reported functional impairment, women who were Caucasian, women who have received previous psychological treatments, women who were less expressive of positive emotions, women who had unsupportive friends and family, and women who were less able to find something positive in the cancer experience reported poorer adaptation.

Conclusions: This study identified a set of risk factors for poor long-term psychological adaptation among women diagnosed with gynecological cancers. Healthcare professionals working with these women can use these risk factors to screen for patients who may require additional psychological services.

Methods: Mothers of 1.38 million singleton live births in Denmark between January 1, 1979 and December 31, 2002 were linked to information on their spouses, parents, siblings, and older children. Exposure was defined as death or serious illness in a relative during pregnancy or in the 6 months before conception. Linear regression was used to examine the effect of exposure on birthweight. Log-linear binomial regression was used to assess the effect of exposure on small for gestational age.

Results: Death of a relative during pregnancy or in the 6 months before conception reduced birthweight by 27 g (adjusted estimate –27 g, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = –33, –22). There was a significant association between maternal exposure to death of a relative and risk of a baby weighing below the 10th percentile (adjusted relative risk (RR) = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.13, 1.22) and 5th percentile (adjusted RR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.15, 1.29).

Conclusions: Mothers exposed to severe life events before conception or during pregnancy have babies with significantly lower birthweight. If this association is causal, the potential mechanisms of stress-related effects on birthweight include changes in lifestyle due to the exposure and stress-related dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis during pregnancy.

Methods: The subjects were 32 AN patients without other psychiatric comorbidities and 37 healthy controls. Beat-to-beat R-R interval and systolic blood pressure recorded in the supine position were analyzed using power spectral analysis and cross-spectrum analysis to quantify the frequency domain properties of HRV, BPV, and BRS. In addition, detrended fluctuation analysis was used to quantify the fractal correlation properties from the scaling exponent 1 of HRV.

Results: High frequency power and total power of HRV and BRS were significantly higher in AN patients and low frequency power of BPV, low frequency/High frequency ratio of HRV, and the scaling exponent 1 of HRV were significantly lower in AN patients, compared with controls.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that AN patients have reduced cardiovascular sympathetic nervous responsiveness, increased parasympathetic nervous responsiveness, and increased complexity of the interbeat interval time series compared with healthy controls. Regarding the relationship to prognosis of AN, the study showed conflicting results, and further prospective studies are needed to determine if these results are related to high mortality in AN patients.

Methods: Visual-evoked potentials (VEPs) to emotional faces and classification performance were assessed in 12 anorexic females and matched healthy controls.

Results: Patients with anorexia nervosa showed no modulation of emotional face processing and displayed significantly increased N200 amplitudes in response to all emotional categories and decreased VEPs in response to unpleasant emotional faces in the P300 time range as compared with healthy controls. They also made more mistakes in emotional face recognition, in particular, for neutral, sad, and disgusted content.

Conclusions: There are marked differences in evoked potentials and emotion recognition performances of patients with anorexia nervosa and controls in facial processing. Differences in brain dynamics might contribute to difficulties in the correct recognition of facially expressed emotions, deficits in social functioning, and in turn the maintenance of eating disorders.

Methods: The Ohsaki Study, a prospective cohort study, was initiated on 43,391 Japanese adults. To assess if the subjects found a sense of ikigai, they were asked the question, "Do you have ikigai in your life?" We used Cox regression analysis to calculate the hazard ratio of the all-cause and cause-specific mortality according to the sense of ikigai categories.

Results: Over 7 years’ follow-up, 3048 of the subjects died. The risk of all-cause mortality was significantly higher among the subjects who did not find a sense of ikigai as compared with that in the subjects who found a sense of ikigai; the multivariate adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) was 1.5 (1.3–1.7). As for the cause-specific mortality, subjects who did not find a sense of ikigai were significantly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (1.6; 1.3–2.0) and external cause mortality (1.9; 1.1–3.3), but not of the cancer mortality (1.3; 1.0–1.6).

Conclusions: In this prospective cohort study, subjects who did not find a sense of ikigai were associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality. The increase in mortality risk was attributable to cardiovascular disease and external causes, but not cancer.

Methods: This study was a part of the Finnish Health 2000 Study. The nationally representative sample comprised 5129 subjects aged 30 to 97 years. Alexithymia was measured with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and somatic symptom reporting with the 12-item somatization scale derived from the Hopkins Symptom Checklist. Sociodemographic and health-related variables, including depressive and anxiety disorders, and physician verified somatic diagnoses, were treated as confounders in multivariate analyses.

Results: Alexithymia was associated with somatization independently of somatic diseases, depression and anxiety and confounding sociodemographic variables. The TAS-20 factor scale "Difficulties Identifying Feelings" was the strongest common denominator between alexithymia and somatization.

Conclusions: This was the first time the independent association between alexithymia and somatization was established in a large, nationally representative nonclinical sample of both young and old adults with and without mental disorders and somatic diseases.

Methods: The patient sample included 54 subjects with active CU. Fifty-nine healthy subjects were enrolled in the control group. In all subjects DHEA-S serum concentration was measured and mental status analyzed using the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory, SOC Questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory.

Results: Urticaria patients showed lower serum concentration of DHEA-S (p = .01) and lower level of the SOC (p = .009), as well as higher level of anxiety as a state (p < .001) and as a trait (p = .001), and higher level of depression (p = .003). DHEA-S concentration correlated negatively with the level of anxiety as a trait (p = .02) and the level of depression (p = .046), and positively with the SOC level (p = .03).

Conclusions: The results of the present study show that CU patients suffer from the psychological distress. We demonstrated for the first time that DHEA-S decline observed in CU patients might be a phenomenon secondary to psychological disturbances.

Method: We examined eye-gaze behavior of a nonclinical sample of 51 male and female college students with an eye-tracking system as they were looking at pictures of young, attractive males and females. In addition, we used the Eating Disorder Inventory to measure drive for thinness.

Results: Participants with increased scores on the drive for thinness subscale looked longer and more often to the waist, hips, legs, and arms as compared with low scorers. In addition, they showed decreased attention toward the head or face.

Conclusion: The results indicate that participants scoring high on drive for thinness show an attentional bias toward body regions that are associated with assessing changes in weight. However, they neglected the face, which is the most important source of social and affective information when looking at others.