Methods: A total of 427 coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients were genotyped for two polymorphisms and assessed for depressive symptoms at three time points, in accordance with the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D): preoperative baseline; 6 months postoperative; and 1 year postoperative. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between depressive symptoms (CES-D = >16), genotype differences, and cardiac events. Because MAOA-uVNTR is sex-linked, males and females were analyzed separately for this polymorphism; sexes were combined for the 5HTTLPR analysis.

Results: Depressed patients were more likely than nondepressed patients to have a new cardiac event within 2 years of surgery (p < .0001); depressed patients who carry the long (L) allele of the 5HTTLPR polymorphism were more likely than the short/short (S/S carriers to have an event (p = .0002). Genetic associations with 6-month and 1-year postoperative depressive symptoms do not survive adjustment for baseline depressive symptoms.

Conclusions: A serotonin-related gene polymorphism—5HTTLPR—was associated with adverse cardiac events post CABG, in combination with depressive symptoms. Because depressed patients with the L allele of the 5HTTLPR polymorphism were more likely to have an event compared with the S/S carriers, combining genetic and psychiatric profiling may prove useful in identifying patients at the highest risk for adverse outcomes post CABG.

Methods: The study sample consisted of 893 middle-age men who participated in a trial aimed at preventing the metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Serum cholesterol was measured by the enzymatic method. Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing health behavior and depressive symptoms.

Results: Depressive symptoms consistently correlated statistically significantly with adverse lifestyle factors and, as hypothesized, positively with HDL. Path analyses supported the parallel existence of two main pathways: from depression through adverse health behavior to unfavorable cholesterol fraction balance, and a direct physiological link indicative of beneficial effect of depression on cholesterol levels.

Conclusions: It is concluded that, among a sample of men, depressive symptoms are linked to cholesterol fractions through two different pathways. An adverse relationship of depression with serum lipids HDL-LDL balance is partly mediated through harmful health behaviors. At the same time, the results indicate a direct, physiological link between depressive symptoms and cholesterol that has a beneficial influence on the HDL-LDL balance.

Methods: Currently depressed (N = 17) and never-depressed (N = 17) women participated in a laboratory protocol designed to stimulate, measure, and compare peripheral oxytocin release in response to two tasks: an affiliation-focused Guided Imagery task and a Speech Stress task. Intermittent blood samples were drawn over the course of two, 1-hour sessions including 20-minute baseline, 10-minute task, and 30-minute recovery periods.

Results: The 10-minute laboratory tasks did not induce identifiable, acute changes in peripheral oxytocin. However, as compared with nondepressed controls, depressed women displayed greater variability in pulsatile oxytocin release over the course of both 1-hour sessions, and greater oxytocin concentrations during the 1-hour affiliation-focused imagery session. Oxytocin concentrations obtained during the imagery session were also associated with greater symptoms of depression, anxiety, and interpersonal dysfunction.

Conclusions: Depressed women are more likely than controls to display a dysregulated pattern of peripheral oxytocin release. Further research is warranted to elucidate the clinical significance of peripheral oxytocin release in both depressed and nondepressed women.

Methods: In this study, 34 healthy married couples (n = 68), aged 20 to 39 years (mean = 25.2 years), were randomly assigned to a "behavior monitoring" control group or participated in a 4-week intervention study in which clinic levels of plasma oxytocin, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure, and salivary cortisol and alpha amylase were obtained pre and post intervention, at the same time salivary oxytocin was taken at home during weeks 1 and 4.

Results: Salivary oxytocin was enhanced both early and late in the intervention group and alpha amylase was reduced at post treatment in intervention group husbands and wives relative to controls. Husbands in the intervention group had significantly lower post treatment 24-hour systolic blood pressure than the control group.

Conclusion: Increasing warm touch among couples has a beneficial influence on multiple stress-sensitive systems.

Methods: Participants included 2932 black and 9777 white men and women aged 45 to 64 years without diabetes at baseline. Total combined family income for the past 12 months and six census tract socioeconomic measures combined into a composite index were used to quantify iSES and nSES, respectively. Poisson regression was used to assess associations of the joint contribution of iSES and nSES on the MetS, stratified by gender and race and adjusting for multiple covariates. For analyses that included nSES, hierarchical modeling techniques were used.

Results: Using 2005 Third Report of the Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults criteria, MetS was identified in 40% of black women, 30% of white women, 28% of black men, and 35% of white men. Among black and white men, there was no association between MetS and iSES or nSES. In contrast, after adjustment for risk factors, black and white women with low (L)-iSES and medium (M)-iSES were more likely to have MetS than those with high (H)-iSES. Similar but weaker patterns were noted for L-nSES and M-nSES.

Conclusions: In summary, both iSES and nSES were independently associated with an increased prevalence of MetS among women but not men. Efforts aimed at understanding the causes of these gender differences may offer insight into avenues for reducing the prevalence of the MetS and its chronic disease sequelae.

Method: Participants were adults aged ≥65 years from the 2004 Health and Retirement Study (n = 9448). Depressive symptoms were measured with a nine-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale. Measurement differences attributable to health and sociodemographic factors were assessed with a multidimensional model based on item response theory.

Results: Evidence for unidimensionality was equivocal. We used a bifactor model to express symptom endorsement patterns as resulting from a general factor and three specific factors ("dysphoria," "psychosomatic," and "lack of positive affect"). Even after controlling for the effects of health on the psychosomatic factor, heart conditions, stroke, diabetes, and lung diseases had significant positive effects on the general factor. Significant effects due to gender and educational levels were observed on the "lack of positive affect" factor. Older adults self-identifying as Latinos had higher levels of general depression. On the symptom level, meaningful measurement noninvariance due to race/ethnic differences were found in the following five items: depressed, effort, energy, happy, and enjoy life.

Conclusions: The increased tendency to endorse depressive symptoms among persons with specific health conditions is, in part, explained by specific associations among symptoms belonging to the psychosomatic domain. Differences attributable to the effects of health conditions may reflect distinct phenomenological features of depression. The bifactor model serves as a vehicle for testing such hypotheses.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 768 participants of the Rotterdam Study, aged 57 to 97 years. Sleep parameters were assessed with actigraphy, a validated method that infers wakefulness and sleep from arm movement. Cholesterol levels in serum were determined in fasting blood samples. All regression analyses were adjusted for age, gender, body mass index, smoking, depressive symptoms, and heart failure.

Results: Sleep duration was positively associated with total cholesterol level: β = 0.11 (95% confidence interval = 0.03–0.18) mmol/l per hour of sleep. Persons who slept longer, and spent more time in bed, also had a higher total/HDL cholesterol ratio. A less fragmented sleep was also associated with higher total cholesterol. Some of these associations showed significant interactions with age. The association between time in bed and total/HDL ratio was mainly driven by persons aged <65, whereas the relationship between sleep fragmentation and total cholesterol level was most prominent in persons aged ≥70.

Conclusions: A longer sleep duration was related to higher total cholesterol level and a higher total/HDL cholesterol ratio. Two separate mechanisms, a longer time in bed and sleep fragmentation, seem to explain these associations in different age categories.

Methods: The association of body weight (five categories: underweight [body mass index [BMI] <18.5]; normal [18.5 ≤ BMI <25]; overweight [25 ≤ BMI <30]; obese [30 ≤ BMI <40]; and extremely obese [BMI ≥40]) with personality disorders was investigated using data from the nationally representative National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) (n = 43,093). Lifetime paranoid, schizoid, antisocial, histrionic, avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive PDs were examined, as assessed by the Alcohol Use Disorders and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule-DSM-IV version (AUDADIS-IV).

Results: After adjusting for sociodemographics, Axis I disorders, schizophrenia, physical health conditions, and comorbid PDs, extreme obesity was associated with antisocial or avoidant PDs (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) range = 1.66–1.73), whereas underweight was associated with increased odds of schizoid PD (AOR = 1.89). The pattern of associations differed when stratified by gender. Overweight men had lower odds of paranoid PD (AOR = 0.73). Women with higher-than-normal body weights had higher odds of paranoid, antisocial, and avoidant PDs (AOR range = 1.33–2.50), whereas underweight women more often met the criteria for schizoid PD (AOR = 1.95).

Conclusions: Higher-than-normal body weight is associated with paranoid, antisocial, and avoidant PDs for women, whereas overweight men have lower rates of paranoid PD and underweight women have higher odds of schizoid PD. Possible clinical implications of this research are discussed.

Methods: Seventy-six patients (52 men, 24 women; mean age = 61.1 years) being investigated for suspected CAD on the basis of symptomatology and positive noninvasive tests, completed 24-hour electrocardiograms. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was administered, and positive and depressed affect was measured over the study period with the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM). A total of 46 (60.5%) patients were later found to have definite CAD. HRV was analyzed, using spectral analysis.

Results: Typical diurnal profiles of HRV were observed, with greater normalized high frequency (HF) and lower normalized low frequency (LF) power in the night compared with the day. BDI depression scores were not consistently associated with HRV. But positive affect was associated with greater normalized HF power (p = .039) and reduced normalized LF power (p = .007) independently of age, gender, medication with β blockers, CAD status, body mass index, smoking, and habitual physical activity level. In patients with definite CAD, depressed affect assessed using the DRM was associated with reduced normalized HF power and heightened normalized LF power (p = .007) independently of covariates.

Conclusions: Relationships between depression and HRV in patients with CAD may depend on affective experience over the monitoring period. Enhanced parasympathetic cardiac control may be a process through which positive affect protects against cardiovascular disease.

Methods: Of 1344 MI patients admitted to three Canadian hospitals, 474 patients did not meet the inclusion criteria and 393 declined participation in the study; 477 patients consented to participate in the study. A structured interview and questionnaires were administered to patients 48 hours to 14 days post MI (mean ± standard deviation = 4 ± 2.73 days).

Results: Four percent were classified as having ASD using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, ASD module. The presence of symptoms of depression (Beck Depression Inventory; odds ratio (OR) = 29.92) and the presence of perceived distress during the MI (measured using the question "How difficult/upsetting was the experience of your MI?"; OR = 3.42, R² = .35) were associated with the presence of symptoms of ASD on the Modified PTSD Symptom Scale. The intensity of the symptoms of depression was associated with the intensity of ASD symptoms (R = .65). The models for the detection and estimation of ASD symptoms were validated by applying the regression equations to 72 participants not included in the initial regressions. The results obtained in the validation sample did not differ from those obtained in the initial sample.

Conclusions: The symptoms of depression and the subjective distress during the MI could be used to improve the detection of ASD.

Methods: Ten cross-sectional population surveys of household-residing adults (>18 years, n = 18,303) assessed mental disorders with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 3.0) as part of the World Mental Health surveys. Assessment of a range of childhood family adversities was included. Asthma was ascertained by self-report of lifetime diagnosis and age of diagnosis. Survival analyses calculated hazard ratios (HRs) for risk of adult-onset (>age 20 years) asthma as a function of number and type of childhood adversities and early-onset (<age 21 years) depressive and anxiety disorders, adjusting for current age, sex, country, education, and current smoking.

Results: Childhood adversities predicted adult-onset asthma with risk increasing with the number of adversities experienced (HRs = 1.49–1.71). Early-onset depressive and anxiety disorders also predicted adult-onset asthma (HRs = 1.67–2.11). Childhood adversities and early-onset depressive and anxiety disorders both predicted adult-onset asthma after mutual adjustment (HRs = 1.43–1.91).

Conclusions: Childhood adversities and early-onset depressive/anxiety disorders independently predict adult-onset asthma, suggesting that the mental disorder-asthma relationship is not a function of a shared background of childhood adversity.

Methods: Participants (N = 128) were randomly assigned to receive a 10-week CBSM group intervention or a 1-day psychoeducation seminar. Serum cortisol was collected and ability to relax was assessed at study entry and again at 6- and 12-month follow-up visits. Data were analyzed using latent growth curve modeling.

Results: There was a significant effect of study condition on change across time for both cortisol and perceived ability to relax. Women receiving CBSM had significantly greater reductions in cortisol levels across the 12 months compared with those in the control group, who had no appreciable decline. Women receiving CBSM reported greater increases in ability to relax than controls across time. Perceived ability to relax did not mediate CBSM-related reductions in cortisol.

Conclusions: Women who participate in a 10-week CBSM intervention during treatment for breast cancer show decreases in physiological stress in parallel with increases in perceived relaxation skills. This is the first study demonstrating well-maintained reductions in cortisol after a CBSM intervention in cancer patients during and just after treatment.

Methods: In a lifespan study, female rats lived with their sisters and were tested for temperament, affiliative reciprocity during an everyday stressor at puberty, corticosterone response to a stressor, mammary tumor development and diagnosis, and death.

Results: Rats that affiliated more reciprocally during a mild group stressor survived longer (p = .0005), having exhibited a lower corticosterone peak in response to an acute novel stressor in late adulthood (p = .0015), and longer time to the development of spontaneous mammary tumors (p = .02). These effects could not be explained solely by the number of affiliative interactions or individual temperament. Indeed, affiliative reciprocity and neophobia were independent and predicted mortality additively (p = .0002).

Conclusions: Affiliative reciprocity during a stressor, a structural quality of social interactions, protected females from early mammary tumor development (the primary pathology in Sprague-Dawley rats) and early all-cause mortality. Conversely, lack of reciprocity (whether disproportionately seeking or receiving attempted affiliation) was as potent a risk factor as neophobia. Thus a social role increased risk additively with individual temperament. Our data indicate that affiliative reciprocity functions as a buffer for everyday stressors and are likely mediated by attenuated reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.