The psychological component of disease

[tarak]

What exactly is the psychological/mental contribution to an organic ailment??Ofcourse it'll be variable and will be very specific depending on the body,pathogen and several other interaction processes.But what is the overall contribution of a healthy attitude towards the dissipation of disease.Any interesting studies in this area Please do enlighten me.
regards
T.Dhurjati

[Fishteacher73]

Here is a good article that discusses placebos and their ability to help. Most of the studies cited involve uses of anti-depressants. Whis is partially a psychological disorder and not so much an organic one, but there are organic reasons for the drugs to actually work.

http://health.indiatimes.com/articleshow/242393.cms

[OpenMind5]

Tarak,
It would seem very common that when someone is faced with disease, that they experience some depression. That just seems logical.

Op5

[Biochemist]

Originally Posted by tarak

What exactly is the psychological/mental contribution to an organic ailment??
T.Dhurjati

1) There are probably hundreds (thousands?) of interesting studies related to the impact of psychological state on health status. One set of studies relates to the placebo effect referenced above. This is the effect related to administration of an intervention (drug or otherwise) that the recipient believes will have a beneficial outcome. This is so well documented and generally accepted that peer-review articles are soundly denigrated if clinicians administer medications to patients when either the clinician or the patient know what the medication is. The preferred model for a clinical trial in pharmacology is a double-blind (i.e., both the patient and the clinician are unaware of the drug being tested) crossover (i.e. the patients that get one treatment swap and then get the other one.) Any study that is not double-blind crossover is critiqued for absence of the control. Many studies are not double-blind crossover because they can be difficult to administer.

2) Patients who believe they are going to get better tend to improve more than those who do not. Some oncologists are ethically troubled by the problem that telling their patients an overly optimistic prognosis does tend to improve the prognosis. That is, some patients seem to benefit by having their trusted physician lie to them.

3) Emotional support from family and friends tends to significantly improve clinical outcomes. Conversely, loss of support tends to be associated with a decay in outcomes. This tends to corroborate the significant tendency for a surviving spouse to die relatvely soon after the death of a spouse. Being alone and unsupported appears to adversely affect mortality.