Mood states and minor illness.

Mood and health reports from 65 administrative and clerical staff were obtained daily over a period of several weeks. Three mood factors emerged from the aggregated data which appear to be most suitably labelled: happiness, tense depression and hostile depression. Subjects high on hostile depression suffered more from colds. Subjects scoring highly on tense depressed mood reported more insomnia, head and neck aches. The results, especially in regard to hostile depression, are discussed in a wider context, including possible overlap with core affective aspects of the well-known Type A coronary risk construct. Finally, psychoimmunological interpretations of the link between hostile depression and vulnerability to colds are considered.