Emotions and health

Experiencing health problems can produce strong emotional responses that may impact psychological well-being and disease outcome. Also emotional states have been found to be associated with the development of disease. Negative emotions have been found to be associated with health complaints. Conversely, positive emotions have been found to be associated with better health. Emotions may affect health indirectly by influencing behaviors known to be associated with health outcomes or through physiological mechanisms such as physiological reactivity and changes in immune functioning. Approaches for helping people deal more effectively with negative emotions and maximize positive ones are discussed.