Stress causes wounds to heal more slowly

Marucha et al (1998) found that exam stress led to a reduction in the speed of wound healing. They concluded that exam stress can have a significant effect on wound healing. Recent research by Weinman at King’s College London suggests that this may be due to increased levels of cortisol. Weinman gave healthy volunteers a standardised questionnaire to measure their level of life stress and then gave each participant an identical punch biopsy wound. The researchers monitored the wound for three weeks and used ultrasound imaging to measure how quickly the wound healed. They found that participants who had a low stress score on the life stress questionnaire healed twice as quickly as participants who had a high stress score. They also measured levels of cortisol and found that the high stress score participants had higher levels of cortisol. More importantly this finding has been replicated and a systematic review of 22 studies investigating stress and wound healing support the link between stress and wound healing.