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1. Discuss the kinds of ‘physical illnesses’ that may be affected by emotion.

Key Points:

  • In psychosomatic disorders, there are links between emotion, cognition, and physical symptoms (including pain).
  • Examples where such links have been established are asthma, peptic ulcers, hypertension and skin rashes, where psychosomatic conditions may exacerbate the condition even if they do not cause them per se.
  • These disorders are usually mediated via organs or organ systems that are innervated by the autonomic nervous system (ANS).
  • Furthermore, many physical illnesses are now thought to have a psychological, more particularly an emotional, component (e.g. Rob inson & Pennebaker, 1991); Pennebaker (e.g. 1990) has reported that communicating (by talking or writing) about our illnesses and negative emotional experiences may help to ameliorate them. (Extra credit should be received for further discussion of material presented in research close-up 2.)
  • Anxiety is thought to be at the root of many psychosomatic disorders. It is one of the most common emotions, and certainly contributes to many types of illness, physical or mental.
  • At one level, it is a commonplace experience and has had more theories offered to account for it than most other emotions (see McNaughton, 1996; Strongman, 1996).
  • On another level, there is extreme anxiety. Consideration of panic attack and the mechanisms that may underlie this.
  • Extra credit for evidence of wider reading outside chapter 6; for example, reference to psychoneuroimmunology and possible linkages between psychological states, brain mechanisms and the immune system mediating relationships with physical illness.

Copyright 2005 BPS Blackwell