Dispositional optimism and stress-induced changes in immunity and negative mood
Open accessAbstract
Evidence suggests that optimism may be protective for health during times of heightened stress, yet the mechanisms involved remain unclear. In a double-blind placebo-controlled study, we recently showed that acute psychological stress and an immune stimulus (Typhim-Vi typhoid vaccine) synergistically increased serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and negative mood in 59 healthy men. Here we carried out further analysis of this sample to investigate the relationship between dispositional optimism and stress-induced changes in immunity and mood. Volunteers were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions in which they received either typhoid vaccine or saline placebo, and then rested or completed two mental tasks. In the stress condition, optimism was inversely related to IL-6 responses, independent of age, BMI, trait CES-D depression and baseline IL-6. This relationship was present across both stress groups (combining vaccine and placebo) and was not present in the vaccine/stress group alone, suggesting that optimism protects against the inflammatory effects of stress rather than vaccine per se. Typhoid vaccine induced a significant increase in participants' circulating anti-Vi antibody levels. Stress had no effect on antibody responses overall. However, in the vaccine/stress group, there was a strong positive association between optimism and antibody responses, indicating that stress accentuated the antibody response to vaccine in optimists. Across the complete sample, more optimistic individuals had smaller increases in negative mood and less reduction in mental vigour. Together these findings suggest that optimism may promote health, by counteracting stress-induced increases in inflammation and boosting the adjuvant effects of acute stress.
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Interventions that facilitate reappraisal of threat expectancies, target imaginary rescripting of the trauma narrative, or induce optimism, compassion, hope, and expectancy may reduce arousal by downregulating the HPA axis, downregulating sympathetic activation, and modulating immune function adaptively.
“Finally, interventions that attempt to verbally facilitate reappraisal of the individual’s threat expectancies (as in cognitive therapy without the exposure component‡‡‡‡‡),172,173 that target imaginary rescripting of the trauma narrative,174 or that induce and maintain a mind state of optimism, compassion, hope, and expectancy (as in spiritual beliefs in a loving and protective Other)169,175–177”
From Fear and the Defense Cascade (2015) · cites this paper as [179]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe practice of fostering engaged, nonreactive curiosity (mindfulness) helps the individual decouple physical sensations from associated feelings of fear.
“The practice of fostering a state of engaged, but nonreactive, curiosity (mindfulness) helps the individual decouple the physical sensations from the associated feelings of fear.136,138,169”
From Fear and the Defense Cascade (2015) · cites this paper as [138]
The Introduction and Methods discuss dispositional optimism and responses to laboratory stress, not mindfulness practice. Searches for nonreactive curiosity and for decoupling physical sensations from fear found no passage addressing that claim in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.77)
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- Authors
- Brydon, L., Walker, C., Wawrzyniak, A. J., Chart, H., & Steptoe, A.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Health Protection Agency (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Brydon, Lena
- Venue
- Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-08
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 810-816
- ISSN
- 0889-1591 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2715885
- OpenAlex
- W2094816262
- Cited by
- 165
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 11.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Brain Behavior and Immunity (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- British Heart Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Optimism, Hope, and Well-being
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Biological Psychiatry › Tryptophan and brain disorders
- Keywords
- dispositional optimism, acute psychological stress, interleukin-6, inflammation, negative mood, typhoid vaccine, antibody response
- MeSH terms
- Acute Disease, Adolescent, Adult, Affect, Antibodies, Bacterial, Antibody Formation, Depression, Double-Blind Method, Hemodynamics, Humans, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Neurosecretory Systems, Personality, Stress, Psychological, Typhoid-Paratyphoid Vaccines, Interleukin-6, Young Adult
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