engleski

Structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to the study of neuroendocrine-immunologic relations in stress

The links between the central nervous, endocrine and immune systems are well established. A stressful stimulus induces a general stress response through the activation of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, complexly integrated with the immune system. Diverse alterations in psychological, endocrine and immunological functions during an acute and chronic stress have been reported. In this study, psychometric (anxiety, depression, hypersensitivity, fear, hypohondria, personality, adaptational, psichosomatic, cardiovascular and gastro-intestinal disorders), hormonal (cortisol, prolactin, beta-endorphin, thyroxine and triiodothyronine) and immunologic (the number and proportions of the main lymphocyte subpopulations and phagocyte functions) responses were assayed in 62 persons exposed to war-related traumatic events (28 concentration camp prisoners and 34 displaced persons) and 30 control subjects. To elucidate the underlying inter-relationship among "latent constructs" (abstract varables) i.e. psychologic, endocrine and immune status based on "manifest" (observed) variables used to measure these constructs, a poweful multivariate analysis technique, SEM, was used. The postulated model of relationships between the three statuses, with psychologic status being connected to immune status both directly and via endocrine status fits the data qute well (chi^2=76.18; p=0.11). The observed data for adaptation, depression, fear, personality, cortisol, beta-endorphin, prolactin, triiodothyronine, CD8, CD20, CD71, ingestion and ADCC contribute to the relatioships. Direct relationship between psychologic and immune status is probably due to activation of SNS, not measured here. Using the available data to solve the system of regression equations for both measurement and structural components, SEM yields estimates of the strenght of relatioships in the hypothesized model.

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