Development and psychometric evaluation of the pleasant activities list.

This paper describes the development of a new 139-item behavioral questionnaire (PAL) assessing the frequency and enjoyability of pleasant activities occurring in the natural environment of patients with substance use disorders. The sample consisted of 265 patients with mainly substance use disorders and 272 healthy controls. Group comparisons indicated that patients reported lower frequency, enjoyability, and cross-product activity scores than controls. This study confirms previous findings that addiction is associated with a decreased level of engagement in pleasant activities. The PAL seems to be a standardized, feasible, and valid instrument to sample non-substance-related rewarding activities in patients' everyday lives.

Modulation of immune response to rDNA hepatitis B vaccination by psychological stress.

In a previous study it was shown that antibody formation after vaccination with a low-dose recombinant DNA (rDNA) hepatitis B vaccine was negatively influenced by psychological stress. The present study was designed to assess whether the same inverse relation between HBs-antibody levels and psychological stress could be observed, while administering the standard, and thus higher, dose of vaccine. Volunteers (n = 68) scoring extremely low or high on a combination of questionnaires measuring daily problems and psychoneurotic symptoms were selected for participation. Antibody levels were determined 2, 6, and 7 months after the first vaccination. Questionnaires were completed before entering the study and at month 6. In contrast to the previous study, psychological stress was not found to be related to the antibody levels at any timepoint. These results suggest that, under certain conditions, stress-induced immunomodulation in vivo might be dependent on antigen dose.

Hypertension and objective and self-reported stressor exposure: a review.

A review of the literature on the relationship between blood pressure and stressor exposure revealed a discrepancy between the results of studies based on objective measures of stressor exposure and studies based on self-reports. Whereas in the studies based on objective measures, a clear predominance of positive associations between blood pressure level and stressor exposure was found, in the studies based on self-reports, the results were highly inconsistent. Several moderator variables have been proposed that could explain the discrepancies found in the literature, such as awareness of hypertension and treatment. In studies in which these moderators were taken into account, inverse associations between blood pressure and self-reported stressor exposure have often been found. It is suggested that this result is brought about by altered appraisal of stressors in hypertensives.

Immunologic, endocrine and psychological influences on cortisol-induced immunoglobulin synthesis in vitro.

In the present study, the relationship between psychological variables and hydrocortisone (HC)-induced immunoglobulin (Ig) production in vitro was investigated. Ninety-five human volunteers were selected based on their extreme (low or high) scores on a daily hassles and a symptoms questionnaire. Four groups were composed: (1) few hassles, few symptoms; (2) many hassles, few symptoms; (3) few hassles, many symptoms; and (4) many hassles, many symptoms. Incubating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) for 2 weeks with HC (concentrations ranging from 10(-8) to 10(-6) M), resulted in a concentration-dependent rise in IgM and IgG secretion. In vitro IgM as well as IgG secretion were found to be related to plasma Ig levels. Plasma cortisol levels were positively associated with HC-induced IgG secretion. Furthermore, Ig secretion was found to depend on psychological profile, indicating a differential sensitivity of PBMC to HC for the four groups.