It is well documented that psychological stress impairs wound healing in humans and rodents. However, most research effort into influences on wound healing has focused on factors that compromise, rather than promote, healing. In the present study, we determined if positive social interaction, which influences hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity in social rodents, promotes wound h...

In this review, we examine how experiences in social confrontations alter gene expression in mesocorticolimbic cells. The focus is on the target of attack and threat due to the prominent role of social defeat stress in the study of coping mechanisms and victimization. The initial operational definition of the socially defeated mouse by Ginsburg and Allee (1942) enabled the characterization of k...

BACKGROUND The role of psychosocial factors in the aetiology of coronary heart disease continues to be debated. Despite public perception of a major role for their effect, scientific opinion on their relevance remains divided. This paper reviews the literature on the influence of social support and life stress on coronary heart disease incidence and mortality. METHODS Observational studies pu...

Background: Pregnancy is associated with many emotional, physical, and social changes in women’s lives which may have an effect on the outcomes of pregnancy, so identifying moderating factors such as social support may have a preventing role on unintended outcomes of pregnancy. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between social support with anxiety, d...

BACKGROUND Early life stress is associated with poorer social functioning. Attentional biases in response to threat-related cues, linked to both early experience and psychopathology, may explain this association. To date, however, no study has examined attentional biases to fearful facial expressions as a function of early life stress or examined these biases as a potential mediator of the rela...

Communicating threats and stress via biological signaling is common in animals. In humans, androstadienone (ANDR), a synthetic male steroid, is a socially relevant chemosignal exhibited to increase positive mood and cortisol levels specifically in (periovulatory) females in positively arousing contexts. In a negative context, we expected that such effects of ANDR could amplify social evaluative...

Social stress has been implicated as a cause of urinary bladder hypertrophy and dysfunction in humans. Using a murine model of social stress, we and others have shown that social stress leads to bladder overactivity. Here, we show that social stress leads to bladder overactivity, increased bladder compliance, and increased afferent nerve activity. In the social stress paradigm, 6-wk-old male C5...