Psychological and inflammatory biobehavioral mechanisms underlying the association between bereavement and cardiovascular disease

项目摘要 失去配偶是一个人可能遇到的最紧张的经历之一。面对这样的损失，人们 生理和情绪失调因此，失去亲人的人面临的风险增加， 心血管疾病（CVD），发病率和死亡率。CVD占死亡人数的20-53%，令人震惊 在失去配偶后。高度紧张的人，如丧偶的配偶， 炎症反应与那些压力较小的人相比。重要的是，炎症是一个预测因子， 从初始病变到终末期血栓性并发症的所有阶段的CVD。因此，作为丧亲者， 个体高度紧张，CVD风险增加，炎症可能是潜在的关键机制。 CVD的风险。此外，丧亲相关的压力往往表现在情绪和身体反应， 如绝望、抑郁症状、过度悲伤沉思、失眠和体力活动减少。在 丧亲之痛，成功调节情绪的能力是健康应对的重要技能，预测健康 结果，并可能代表一个关键的心理机制，占不同程度的弹性。 心理距离是一种很有前途的适应性情绪调节策略， 通过退后一步，疏远自己，冷静地，客观地评估消极的情况， 发生了目前的工作目标是调查心理距离，实施 隐含地经由自然语言使用（即，语言距离（LD）），与促炎细胞因子有关 心血管疾病风险的生物标志物和丧亲相关的健康指标。160名经历过损失的参与者 在过去的两个月内，他们的配偶将完成调查问卷， 索引（即，死亡风险、一般健康状况、抑郁症状、感知压力、悲伤沉思、 睡眠质量和身体活动），并进行抽血以评估促炎细胞因子生物标志物 CVD风险。参与者将被要求讨论他们与已故配偶的关系六分钟 同时被记录。为了评估LD，对每个参与者的口头成绩单进行词汇分析， 他或她的自发心理距离使用一个完善的，标准化的LD度量。大LD 分数表明更大的心理距离，并与更多的适应性情绪有关 监管和健康指数。主要目的包括评估（1）LD是否与CVD呈负相关- 相关的促炎细胞因子反应，（2）如果LD与有害的丧亲相关的 健康指标，以及（3）作为探索性目标，检查和表征功能相互关系 LD，促炎细胞因子反应和丧亲相关的健康指数。这项工作可能 解释语言，情绪和CVD风险之间的新依赖关系，识别弹性因素，并探索 LD在这一弱势群体中的转化价值，为未来可扩展的、有效的 降低CVD风险、发病率和死亡率的治疗。

Project Summary The loss of a spouse is one of most stressful experiences one can encounter. In the face of such loss, people are physiologically and emotionally dysregulated. As a result, bereaved individuals are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), morbidity, and mortality. CVD accounts for an astounding 20-53% of deaths following loss of a spouse. Highly stressed individuals, such as bereaved spouses, exhibit heightened inflammatory responses in comparison to those who are less stressed. Importantly, inflammation is a predictor of all stages of CVD from initial lesion to end-stage thrombotic complications. Therefore, as bereaved individuals are highly stressed and at increased risk of CVD, inflammation may be a key mechanism underlying this CVD risk. Further, bereavement-related stress is often manifested in emotional and physical reactions such as despair, symptoms of depression, excessive grief rumination, insomnia, and decreased physical activity. In bereavement, the ability to successfully regulate emotion is a vital skill for healthy coping, predictive of health outcomes, and may represent a key psychological mechanism accounting for varying degrees of resilience. Psychological distancing is one promising adaptive emotion regulation strategy in which an individual appraises a negative situation by taking a step back, distancing oneself, and coolly, objectively evaluates what is happening. The objective of the present work is to investigate if psychological distancing, implemented implicitly via natural language use (i.e., linguistic distancing (LD)), is related to proinflammatory cytokine biomarkers of CVD risk and bereavement-related health indicators. 160 participants who experienced the loss of their spouse within the last two months will complete questionnaires that index bereavement-related health indices (i.e., risk for mortality, general health, symptoms of depression, perceived stress, grief rumination, sleep quality, and physical activity), and undergo a blood draw to assess proinflammatory cytokine biomarkers of CVD risk. Participants will be asked to discuss their relationship with the deceased spouse for six minutes while being recorded. To assess LD, lexical assays of each participant's oral transcripts will index the extent of his or her spontaneous psychological distancing using a well-established, standardized LD metric. Greater LD scores indicate greater psychological distancing and have been associated with more adaptive emotion regulation and health indices. Primary aims include assessing (1) if LD is negatively associated with CVD- related proinflammatory cytokine responses, (2) if LD is negatively related to deleterious bereavement-related health indicators, and (3) as an exploratory aim, examining and characterizing functional interrelationships among LD, proinflammatory cytokine responses, and bereavement-related health indices. This work may explain novel dependencies among language, emotion, and CVD risk, identify resilience factors, and probe the translational value of LD in this vulnerable population to inform the future design of scalable, effective treatments to reduce risk of CVD, morbidity, and mortality.