Negative mood signals body immune response, study reveals

Negative mood such as sadness and anger is associated with higher levels of inflammation and may be a signal of poor health, researchers at Penn State have said. The researchers discovered that negative mood measured multiple times a day over time is associated with higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers. This extends prior research showing that […]

Negative mood such as sadness and anger is associated with higher levels of inflammation and may be a signal of poor health, researchers at Penn State have said.

The researchers discovered that negative mood measured multiple times a day over time is associated with higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers. This extends prior research showing that clinical depression and hostility are associated with higher inflammation.

The principal investigator, Jennifer Graham-Engeland, associate professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State said, the results of the study which were recently published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, is what they believed the first examination of associations between both momentary and recall measures of mood or affect with measures of inflammation.

Participants were asked to recall their feelings over a period of time in addition to reporting how they were feeling at the moment, in daily life. These self-assessments were taken over a two-week period, then each was followed by a blood draw to measure markers that indicated inflammation.

The researchers found that negative mood accumulated from the week closer to the blood draw was associated with higher levels of inflammation.

Additional analyses also suggested that the timing of mood measurement relative to the blood draw mattered, Graham-Engeland said. Specifically, there were stronger trends of association between momentary negative affect and inflammation when negative mood was assessed closer in time to blood collection.

Graham-Engeland said, this work is novel because the researchers not only used questionnaires that asked participants to recall their feelings over a period of time, they also asked them how they were feeling in the moment.

He said the results inspire ongoing research to investigate how intervention in daily life can improve mood and help individuals cope with stress.