The Role of Affiliative Loss in the Recruitment of Helper Cells among Insulin-Dependent Diabetics

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The study was undertaken to determine whether affiliative loss might play a role in the development of insulin-dependent diabetes by increasing the percentage of helper-inducer T cells when diabetics were reminded of the loss. It was found that diabetics who had experienced the recent death of a loved one showed a marked increase in helper cells, in contrast to diabetics who had not experienced a recent death, after both groups viewed a film about a happy, but doomed, love affair. The diabetics who had experienced a recent death also showed more affiliative distress after viewing the film. This increase in distress was associated with a physiological sign of increased activation, namely, increased plasma cortisol output, which in turn was associated with gains in helper-cell percentages. This suggests that frequent reminders of severe affiliative disturbances during the pre-onset histories of such diabetics may result in physiological activation, which leads to periodical recruitment of helper cells, which could augment the immune attack on the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. None of these results was obtained with controls, which suggests that the diabetics were unusually sensitive to affiliative distress.