We considered cortisol to be of particular interest in this context, as it mediates endocrine and immune responses to stress, and thus might influence couples’ health.
Methods: Salivary cortisol was repeatedly investigated in 61 couples during (a) a standard psychological stress test with no relevance for the couples, and (b) a standard couple conflict discussion in the laboratory before and after CRE. In addition, increases in self-evaluated
relationship quality were analyzed with regard to their influence on salivary cortisol. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling.
Results: Cortisol responses to the couple-external psychological Selleck Selinexor stress test were unaffected by CRE, but specifically cortisol responses during the couple conflict discussion were significantly reduced following CRE compared to pre-intervention levels. Moreover, cortisol decreases during conflict were partially mediated by increases in self-reported relationship quality following CRE.
Conclusions: These data suggest that CRE might LY3039478 buffer the harmful effects of repeated conflict in close relationships. Rather than ameliorating overall stress resilience, CRE might thus specifically improve individual health through increased relationship quality and reduced HPA axis activity during couple conflict.
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“Although peripherally released interleukin (IL)-6 is critical for fever, its role in sickness behaviors, in particular anorexia and lethargy, induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) administration appears to be less important. Using quantifiable measures of fever, anorexia and Lethargy, that is, body temperature, food intake and voluntary wheel-running, we investigated whether the less-than-essential role for IL-6 in mediating sickness behaviors compared to fever implies important roles for other inflammatory mediators, particularly IL-1 beta and prostanoids, in these responses. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to receive one of the following
three injections before receiving a subcutaneous (SC) injection of LPS (250 mu g/kg) or saline: (1) intraperitoneal injection of pre-immune serum or antiserum to IL-6 (IL-6AS), to reduce the biological activity of peripherally released IL-6; (2) intracerebroventricular injection of vehicle or a caspase-1 inhibitor, to inhibit the production of mature IL-1 beta; or (3) intraperitoneal injection of vehicle or one of the two doses (1 or 10 mg/kg) of diclofenac, a nonselective cyclooxygenase inhibitor shown to block the formation of prostanoids. LPS administration induced fever, anorexia and lethargy with an accompanying increase in IL-6 and IL-1 beta concentrations in the circulation and IL-1 beta in the brain.