Bounty

People who are relaxed may find that their wounds heal more quickly than those suffering from stress, scientists say.

Researchers assessed healthy volunteers' stress levels using a questionnaire, then inflicted small "punch" wounds on them.

The wounds of the least anxious participants were found to heal twice as quickly as those of the most stressed, with changes in stress hormone cortisol levels reflecting the differences in healing speed.

Professor John Weinman, from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, presented the findings at the Cheltenham Science Festival.

He said: "My overall research interests are focused on investigating and assessing how patients perceive illness and treatment, and how this affects the way they respond to and recover from a range of physical health problems.

"These studies focus specifically on how the life stresses people experience can impact on their ability to recover from different types of wound, such as those caused by surgical procedures and by different medical conditions, including venous leg ulcers.

"I hope that these findings can now be used to identify psychological interventions to help speed up the recovery and healing process."

Copyright Press Association 2010