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Improving Patient Treatment with Attachment Theory pp 157–176Cite as

The Psychobiology of Attachment and the Aetiology of Disease

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Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to examine whether adult attachment insecurity confers a risk to physical health by examining the physiological components of the stress experience. It will focus primarily on the association between attachment and physiological stress responses as one potential mechanism that may explain “why” individual differences in regulatory strategies may be implicated in aetiology of disease. We begin by providing a brief overview of stress and health, then describe the impact of attachment processes on stress response, integrate these findings into the broader context of the stress literature, and end by mapping out future directions for contributing research.

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  1. Psychobiology Group, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK

    Tara Kidd PhD, MSc, BSc (Hons), Cpsychol

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  1. Tara Kidd PhD, MSc, BSc (Hons), Cpsychol
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Correspondence to Tara Kidd PhD, MSc, BSc (Hons), Cpsychol .

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  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Mount Sinai Hosp. , Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Jonathan Hunter

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Mount Sinai Hosp. , Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Robert Maunder

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Kidd, T. (2016). The Psychobiology of Attachment and the Aetiology of Disease. In: Hunter, J., Maunder, R. (eds) Improving Patient Treatment with Attachment Theory. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23300-0_11

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