Trial reportBrain, behavior, and immunity2011
The effects of daily distress and personality on genital HSV shedding and lesions in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial of acyclovir in HSV-2 seropositive women.
Trial report in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interventions for men and women with their first episode of genital herpes.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Oral antiviral therapy for prevention of genital herpes outbreaks in immunocompetent and nonpregnant patients.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2014Pooled it
- Immunization with Herpes Simplex Virus Nanoparticles Targeting Both Attachment and Fusion Protect Against Infection.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Orolabial and Genital Herpes Clinical Trials: A Meta-analysis of Endpoints.Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Review
- The Functional Medicine Approach to COVID-19: Nutrition and Lifestyle Practices for Strengthening Host Defense.Integrative medicine (Encinitas, Calif.) · 2020Review
- The global and regional burden of genital ulcer disease due to herpes simplex virus: a natural history modelling study.BMJ global health · 2020Article
- Viral Genetics Modulate Orolabial Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Shedding in Humans.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2019Article
- Zika Virus Persistently and Productively Infects Primary Adult Sensory Neurons In Vitro.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2017Article
- Association of Depressed Mood With Herpes Simplex Virus-2 Immunoglobulin-G Levels in Pregnancy.Psychosomatic medicine · 2016Article
- Herpes simplex virus-2 genital tract shedding is not predictable over months or years in infected persons.PLoS computational biology · 2014Article
- Genital herpes beliefs: implications for sexual health.Journal of pediatric and adolescent gynecology · 2013Article
- Clinical relevance of novel Otarine herpesvirus-3 in California sea lions (Zalophus californianus): lymphoma, esophageal ulcers, and strandings.Veterinary research · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections are ubiquitous in humans, but the determinants of clinical and virologic severity are not completely understood. Prior research has suggested that psychological distress can be a co-factor in reactivation of latent HSV infection. Personality traits such as extraversion and neuroticism influence stress attributions and may inform the relationship between psychological distress and health outcomes. Earlier studies in this area have primarily focused on subjective reports of HSV lesion recurrence, but such reports may be influenced by both personality traits and distress. We report results from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial of acyclovir in 19 women for whom personality was assessed at baseline and daily assessments of genital lesions, stress, anxiety, and depression levels were collected for 22 weeks. In addition, daily swabs of the genital mucosa were collected to assess HSV-2 viral reactivation. We found that daily stress predicted genital lesion frequency, and that daily stress, anxiety, and depression predicted genital lesion onset approximately 5 days before onset. Anxiety was also associated with genital lesions 3 days after onset. Distress and viral reactivation were not associated; and no personality traits were associated with any of the outcomes. These results support the hypothesis that psychological distress is both a cause and a consequence of genital lesion episodes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.