Can You Get Shingles From Stress?

I’ve just been diagnosed with shingles. I’ve been really stressed out at work. Could that be the cause?

The ultimate cause of shingles is a reactivation of the dormant herpes zoster (chickenpox) virus, but stress is risk factors for an outbreak.

Herpes zoster virus causes shingles. No one knows for sure what causes the chickenpox virus to become reactivated to cause shingles. Some investigators suggest that the following conditions may participate in virus reactivation, since they have been associated with a higher incidence of shingles. This is a list of only some of the major conditions that may trigger reactivation but have as yet not been proven to do so:

• Stress
• Fatigue
• A weakened immune system (This may be age-related, disease-related, or a drug-related decrease in ability to keep the chickenpox virus in an inactive state.)
• Cancer
• Radiation treatments
• Injury of the skin where the rash occurs
• HIV/AIDS

For more information, read our full medical article on shingles.