Daily stress and recurrence of genital herpes simplex.
It is widely believed that emotional stress triggers recurrences of both oral and genital herpes simplex virus. On a daily basis, we studied 64 subjects prospectively for 1 to 3 months; all subjects had at least one culture-proved recurrence of genital herpes simplex virus type 2 before or during the study. All subjects filled out a questionnaire that measured psychological/emotional stress in six areas: physical health, relations with friends, relations with family, relations with sex partner(s), financial, and vocation/education. These questionnaires were mailed back to us daily. Data were analyzed by General Linear Models analysis of variance to compare stress reported on each of the 6 days before a recurrence with that on days during or after a recurrence, as well as days not temporally related to recurrence. Under these conditions, in which retrospective bias was minimized, there was no significant increase in psychological/emotional stress on any day in any area preceding a recurrence of genital herpes simplex virus.
Rand
K H
KH
Department of Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville 32610.
Hoon
E F
EF
Massey
J K
JK
Johnson
J H
JH
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006558:Herpes Genitalis / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012008:Recurrence; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires