Features of both immune and psycho-emotional factors in the adaptive reactions of first-year students

Abstract

Objective: comparative characteristics of indicators of psycho-emotional and immune statuses of first-year students in various conditions of the educational process.Materials and methods: 2nd groups of first-year students of Rostov State Medical University from the medical and preventive faculty (18 people) and the military training center (17 people) were examined. They were all comparable in age (19 ±1 and 19±2 years), gender (all men), physical condition (corresponded to the I-st health group). The immune status was assessed at the Research Institute of Clinical Immunology using standard methodological approaches. Psychological testing was carried out using the Spielberger-Khanin scale, A. Beck's depression diagnostic methodology, and K. Rogers and R. Diamond questionnaire.Results: the differences in the immune response system between the compared groups were revealed only in relation to the parameters characterizing innate immunity. In relation to Medical and Preventive Faculty students, the functional capabilities of natural killers in Military Training Centre students are reduced and the expression of one of the most indicative pattern-recognizing receptors by monocytes is diminished. The analysis of the obtained data of the psychological questionnaire showed that the students of the Military Training Centredemonstrate a lower degree of situational and personal anxiety with a lower degree of adaptation in comparison with the first-year students of the Medical and Preventive Faculty.Conclusion: the immune system indicators responsible for the processes of primary immune response are reduced in military medical students comparing with medical students, which in its turn forms possible prerequisites for the development of clinical manifestations of immune dysfunction. The period of psychological adaptation to the educational process in a medical university is less successful for first-year students of the Military Training Centre. It is necessary to develop measures aimed at increasing the sense of responsibility, psychoemotional and immune adaptation resources.

Keywords

• adaptation
• immune homeostasis
• psychological stress
• innate immunity