As well as several reports relating diseases and mood, mental status has also been reported to affect immuno-regulatory systems. Chronic depression or chronic stress conditions lead to immuno-suppressive status and imbalance in corticotrophin-releasing hormone, which induces cancer and hyperthyroidism. It has been reported that depressive states induce suppression of mitogenic reaction in lymphocytes, decreases the number and activity of natural killer cells and decreases the production of interferon." Sadamoto, Ogawa, Ogura and Saito, 2006) the work of Gray (nd) entitled: "What Feature of Rheumatoid Arthritis are Hard to Cope with Psychologically and What Strategies Might be Helpful in Coping?" identifies the features of RA which are hard to psychologically cope with and explores the relationships between those features and negative psychological outcomes. The following figure shows the percentages of the disease symptoms and how the ability of those with RA are affected in coping.

Figure 1

How Severely Individuals with...
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