Personality factors, stress and immunity

Abstract

Stress has been shown to have an association with immune changes. In this study, the effects of examination stress were studied in a group of 10 postgraduate students. Parameters measured included the seriousness of illness rating scale, the test of trait anxiety and the subjective appraisal of stressfulness of exams. Immunological parameters assessed included full blood counts, enumeration of lymphocytes and their subsets; lymphocyte proliferative responses to mitogens (phytohaemagglutinin, concavalin A, pokeweed mitogen) and antigen (purified protein derivative); neutrophil phagocytosis; intracellular killing ability and oxidative mechanisms of intracellular killing by assessing the reduct..