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Psychosocial Stress and Susceptibility to Infectious Disease

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Viruses, Immunity, and Mental Disorders

Abstract

The following review could easily be subtitled “What every grandmother knows.” We have all been told at one time or another that if we get stressed, we are likely to get sick. The stressors, which our grandmothers knew so well, may be physical (“Don’t go out in the rain without your boots on!”) or psychological (“When the stork brought your little sister, he didn’t know that she would break your favorite truck!”). This chapter deals specifically with psychosocial factors that have been reported to contribute to the onset or the exacerbation of infectious disease. A part of the present volume considers how behavior is modified by infectious agents. In contrast, this chapter discusses how behavioral variables influence the course of infectious disease. The following review is intended to reflect the nature and complexity of a large and growing area of research rather than to be an exhaustive compendium.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado, 80262, USA

    Mark L. Laudenslager

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  1. Mark L. Laudenslager
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Edouard Kurstak (Director) (Director)

  2. International Comparative Virology Organization, Montreal, Canada

    Edouard Kurstak (Director) (Director)

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Z. J. Lipowski (Professor of Psychiatry) (Professor of Psychiatry)

  4. Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Canada

    Z. J. Lipowski (Professor of Psychiatry) (Professor of Psychiatry)

  5. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

    P. V. Morozov

  6. Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Moscow, USSR

    P. V. Morozov

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© 1987 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Laudenslager, M.L. (1987). Psychosocial Stress and Susceptibility to Infectious Disease. In: Kurstak, E., Lipowski, Z.J., Morozov, P.V. (eds) Viruses, Immunity, and Mental Disorders. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1799-9_38

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1799-9_38

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9007-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-1799-9

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