NEW YORK, Nov 15 (Reuters Health) -- Women with genital herpes who
are stressed out or anxious for long periods of time are at greater risk of
repeated genital herpes outbreaks than women suffering short-term stress,
researchers report.
"Our results indicate that a stressor might have to persist for it to
trigger a herpes recurrence," explain the investigators, led by Dr. Frances
Cohen of the University of California, San Francisco.
Cohen and colleagues followed 58 women who had had genital herpes for
at least 1 year, and who had regular herpes outbreaks. The women were
interviewed every month for 6 months and completed a questionnaire about
their life, and also completed a weekly stress log, health form, and mood
questionnaire. The study findings are published in the November 8th issue
of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The women had an average of three herpes episodes during the 6-month
study. The researchers looked to see if stress that only lasted up to 1
week, stress that lasted for more than 1 week, depression, anger, anxiety,
or negative life experiences were related to genital herpes outbreaks. They
found that the only factors that predicted a repeat episode of genital
herpes were stress or very high levels of anxiety that lasted for more than
1 week. Alcohol use, lack of sleep, and menstrual cycles were all unrelated
to the chance of herpes recurrence.
"The results of our study suggest that transient mood states or
short-term stressors do not put women at risk for increased genital herpes
recurrence," Cohen and colleagues write.
The authors note that long-term stress can have a negative effect on
the immune system, which could cause a herpes outbreak. They recommend that
women experiencing stress for long periods of time might benefit from
counseling and training in stress management.
