title: Anxiety, not anger, induces inflammatory activity: An avoidance/approach model of immune system activation.
abstract: Psychological stressors reliably trigger systemic inflammatory activity as indexed by levels of proinflammatory cytokines. This experiment demonstrates that one's specific emotional reaction to a stressor may be a significant determinant of whether an inflammatory reaction occurs in response to that stressor. Based on extant correlational evidence and theory, a causal approach was used to determine whether an avoidant emotion (anxiety) triggers more inflammatory activity than an approach emotion (anger). In an experimental design (N = 40), a 3-way Emotion Condition × Time × Analyte interaction revealed that a writing-based anxiety induction, but not a writing-based anger induction, increased mean levels of interferon-γ (IFN- γ) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), but not interleukin-6 (IL-6) in oral mucous, F(2, 54) = 4.64, p = .01, ηp(²) = .15. Further, self-reported state anxiety predicted elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines, all ΔR(²) >.06, ps <.04, but self-reported state anger did not. These results constitute the first evidence to our knowledge that specific negative emotions can differentially cause inflammatory activity and support a theoretical model explaining these effects based on the avoidance or approach motivations associated with emotions.
authors.affiliation: Moons Analytics.
authors.forename: Wesley G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Moons
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis.
authors.forename: Grant S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Shields
mesh_terms: D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System / Q000276:immunology*; D007249:Inflammation / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007371:Interferon-gamma; D053583:Interleukin-1beta; D015850:Interleukin-6; D009042:Motivation; D057566:Self Report; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000276:immunology*; D014956:Writing
chemical_list: C508600:IL6 protein, human; D053583:Interleukin-1beta; D015850:Interleukin-6; D007371:Interferon-gamma