Psychosomatic Medicine

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the factors that predispose or precipitate greater intra-individual variability (IIV) in sleep. We further examined the potential consequences of IIV to overall sleep quality and health outcomes, including whether these relationships were found in both self-reported and actigraphy-measured sleep IIV. METHODS: In Study 1, 699 US adults completed a Sleep Intra-Individual Variability questionnaire and self-reported psychosocial, sleep quality, and health outcomes...

OBJECTIVE: Inflammation may be an integral physiological mechanism through which discrimination impacts cardiovascular health and contributes to racial health disparities. Limited research has examined psychosocial factors that protect against the negative effects of discrimination on inflammation. Perceived control is a promising possible protective factor, given that it has been shown to moderate the relationship between other psychosocial stressors and physiological outcomes. This study thus tested whether systemic inflammation mediated the link between discrimination and cardiovascular health and whether perceived control moderated this relationship...

OBJECTIVE: This study tested sleep disturbance as a mediator through which stigma and discrimination predict psychological distress and physical symptom burden in adults with lung cancer. METHODS: Lung cancer patients on active oncological treatment (N = 108; 74.1% Stage IV) completed questionnaires on lung cancer stigma, sleep, distress, and physical symptoms at study entry and at 6- and 12-week follow-up. Mediation analyses were conducted to investigate whether stigma and discrimination predicted distress and physical symptoms at study entry and across 12 weeks through disrupted sleep...

OBJECTIVE: To identify distinct sleep health phenotypes in adults, examine transitions in sleep health phenotypes over time and subsequently relate these to the risk of chronic conditions. METHODS: A national sample of adults from the Midlife in the United States study (N = 3,683) provided longitudinal data with two timepoints (T1:2004-2006, T2:2013-2017). Participants self-reported on sleep health (regularity, satisfaction, alertness, efficiency, duration) and the number and type of chronic conditions...

OBJECTIVE: Structural forms of stigma and discrimination are associated with adverse health outcomes across numerous stigmatized groups, including lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. Yet, the biological consequences of structural stigma among LGB populations are understudied. To begin to address this gap, we assessed associations between indicators of structural stigma (i.e., state-level policies) targeting LGB individuals and allostatic load (AL) indices representing physiological dysregulations...

OBJECTIVE: Childhood maltreatment is associated with shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL). However, the influence of cardiac vagal control on this relation is unknown. We examined whether cardiac vagal control at rest and in response to stress moderates or cross-sectionally mediates the relationship between childhood maltreatment and LTL. METHODS: Participants were 1179 men and women (aged 65 ± 7.2 years) suffering from coronary artery disease (CAD) or non-cardiovascular chronic disease...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

OBJECTIVE: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a severe psychiatric symptom worldwide, and the coexistence of MDD with metabolic syndrome (MetS) is common in clinical practice. However, gender differences in comorbid MetS in first-episode and drug-naïve (FEDN) MDD patients have not been reported. Here, we explored potential gender differences in the prevalence and clinical correlates of comorbid MetS in FEDN MDD patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 1718 FEDN MDD patients was conducted...

OVERVIEW: Allostatic load represents the cumulative toll of chronic mobilization of the body's stress response systems, as indexed by biomarkers. Higher levels of stress and disadvantage predict higher levels of allostatic load, which, in turn, predict poorer physical and mental health outcomes. To maximize the efficacy of prevention efforts, screening for stress- and disadvantage-associated health conditions must occur before middle age-that is, during childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

OBJECTIVE: Eudaimonic facets of psychological well-being (PWB), like purpose in life and sense of mastery, are associated with healthy aging. Variation in the gut microbiome may be one pathway by which mental health influences age-related health outcomes. Yet, associations between eudaimonic PWB and the gut microbiome are understudied. We examined whether purpose in life and sense of mastery, separately, were associated with features of the gut microbiome in older women. METHODS: Participants were from the Mind-Body Study (N = 206, mean age = 61), a substudy of the Nurses' Health Study II cohort...

OBJECTIVE: Cancer can be a traumatic experience affecting multidimensional aspects of sleep among patients and caregivers. This study examined the differential associations of cancer-related post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) with various sleep markers in this population. METHODS: Patients newly diagnosed with colorectal cancer (n = 138, mean age = 56.93 years, 31.88% female, 60.14% Hispanic, 6.53 months post-diagnosis) and their sleep-partner caregivers (n = 138, mean age = 55...

OBJECTIVES: Psychosocial stressors have been linked with accelerated biological aging in adults; however, few studies have examined stressors across the lifecourse in relation to biological aging. METHODS: In 359 individuals (57% White; 34% Black) from the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS) Disparities (DISPAR) Study, economic (income, education, financial strain), social (parent-child relations, caretaker responsibilities) and traumatic (death of a sibling or child, violence exposure) stressors were assessed at multiple timepoints (birth, age 9, 15 and 50)...

OBJECTIVE: The effects of trauma exposure on depression risk and severity are well-established, but psychosocial and biological factors that impact or explain those relationships remain poorly understood. This study examined the moderating and mediating effects of perceived control and inflammation in the relationship between trauma and depression. METHODS: Moderation analyses and longitudinal mediation analyses were conducted on data from 945 adults who completed all three waves (spanning around 19 years) of the MIDUS Study and the MIDUS Biomarker Study...

OBJECTIVE: Depression is a risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a potent predictor of CHD events. Whether depression is associated with LVH has received limited investigation. This study assessed cross-sectional and 20-year longitudinal associations of depressive symptoms with LVH outcomes after accounting for important known confounders. METHODS: From 5,115 participants enrolled in 1985-86 in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, 2,533 had serial measures of depressive symptoms and subsequent echocardiography to measure normal LV geometry, concentric remodeling, and LVH...

OBJECTIVE: Sleep quality and duration are important for biological restoration and promotion of psychological well-being. Optimism may facilitate or result from sufficient sleep, but questions remain as to directionality. The present study tested how optimism is associated with levels of and variability in sleep quantity and quality in a longitudinal burst design. METHODS: Midlife and older women (N = 199) reported their sleep quantity and quality in online diaries for a 7-day period, every 3 months for 2 years...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the frequency of long COVID diagnosis among patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 with pre-existing psychiatric conditions versus those without pre-existing psychiatric conditions. METHODS: The TriNetX Analytics platform, an aggregated Electronic Health Record (EHR) research network containing the de-identified EHR data of over 90 million patients, was queried for patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection based on International Classifications of Disease, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes...

OBJECTIVE: Psychosocial stress is transduced into disease risk through energy-dependent release of hormones from the HPA and SAM axes. The levels of glucocorticoid and adrenergic hormones, together with the sensitivity of tissues to their signaling, define stress responses. To understand existing pathways responsible for the psychobiological transduction of stressful experiences, we provide a quantitative whole-body map of glucocorticoid and adrenergic receptor expression. METHODS: We systematically examined gene expression levels for the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), α- and β-adrenergic receptors (AR-α1B, AR-α2B AR-β2, and AR-β3), across 55 different organs using the Human Protein Atlas dataset...