Stressful Events, Dysphoric Mood, and Immune Responsiveness

This study measured depressive symptoms in 98 men of whom 49 had and 49 had not had a recent experience of family death or serious family illness. The relationships of depression and occurrence of the stressful event to immune function was explored. Persons with higher scores on depression in both groups showed less responsiveness of their lymphocytes to phytohemagglutinin and to allogeneic cells. Data indicate that not all persons react the same way to stressful events and that those with high and low depressive features can be differentiated by their immune responses.