| acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) | A disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which attacks the immune system, making patients susceptible to infection.
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| biofeedback training | A technique by which subjects, with the help of various machines, can monitor and control their own biological processes such as pulse, blood pressure, and brain waves.
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| coronary heart disease | A disease brought about by atherosclerosis, the buildup of fatty deposits on the inside walls of the coronary arteries, and manifested as heart attack or sudden cardiac death.
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| essential hypertension | Chronically high blood pressure for which no organic cause can be found.
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| health psychology | A research discipline that focuses on the relationship between mental and physical health. Also called behavioral medicine.
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| human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) | The virus that attacks and breaks down the human immune system and causes AIDS. It is transmitted by blood, semen, vaginal secretions, or breast milk of an infected person through unsafe sex, the sharing of hypodermic needles, a contaminated blood transfusion, or passage to a child in the womb of an infected mother.
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| hypertension | Chronic elevation of blood pressure due to constriction of the arteries; a stress-related physical disorder. Also called high blood pressure.
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| immune system | The body's system of defense against infectious disease and cancer.
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| individual response specificity | The principle that people seem to have characteristic patterns of autonomic nervous system response which carry over from one kind of stress to another.
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| insomnia | The chronic inability to sleep. The condition can stem from both physical and psychological factors.
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| migraine headache | A severe form of chronic headache that is usually localized on one side of the head, is sometimes preceded by perceptual distortion, and is typically accompanied by other symptoms such as nausea or confusion; a stress-related disorder.
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| mind-body problem | The issue of the relationship between the psychic and somatic aspects of human functioning.
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| psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) | The subspecialty of health medicine that studies the interaction between psychological factors and the immune system, mediated by the central nervous system.
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| relaxation training | A technique that behaviorists have used in stress-relief programs in which the subject alternately tenses, then relaxes, groups of muscles. The goal is to teach the patient to distinguish between tension and relaxation and ultimately achieve the latter.
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| stimulus specificity | The principle that different kinds of stress produce different kinds of physiological response.
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| stress | Variously defined as environmental stimulus of the body, as the body's response to the demands of the environment, and as the interaction between an environmental stimulus and the body's appraisal of it.
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| Type A | A personality characterized by pressure to achieve, impatience, high standards of self-evaluation, and hostility.
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