Search results for "anxiety"
showing 10 items of 1615 documents
The association between different domains of quality of life and symptoms in primary care patients with emotional disorders
2018
AbstractDespite the importance of quality of life (QoL) in primary care patients with emotional disorders, the specific influence of the symptoms of these disorders and the sociodemographic characteristics of patients on the various QoL domains has received scant attention. The aim of the present study of primary care patients with emotional disorders was to analyse the associations between four different QoL domains and the most prevalent clinical symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety and somatization), while controlling for sociodemographic variables. A total of 1241 participants from 28 primary care centres in Spain were assessed with the following instruments: the Patient Health Questionn…
Sex differences in conditioned stimulus discrimination during context-dependent fear learning and its retrieval in humans: the role of biological sex…
2015
BACKGROUND: Anxiety disorders are more prevalent in women than in men. Despite this sexual dimorphism most experimental studies are conducted in male participants and studies focusing on sex differences are sparse. In addition the role of hormonal contraceptives and menstrual cycle phase in fear conditioning and extinction processes remain largely unknown. METHODS: We investigated sex differences in context-dependent fear acquisition and extinction (day 1) and their retrieval/expression (day 2). Skin conductance responses (SCRs) fear and unconditioned stimulus expectancy ratings were obtained. RESULTS: We included 377 individuals (261 women) in our study. Robust sex differences were observe…
Health Behavior in Hypochondriasis
2015
The relationship between health behavior and hypochondriasis has not yet been sufficiently examined, as previous studies investigated only individual dimensions of health behavior. In the present study, we extend current literature by examining multiple dimensions of health behavior. One hundred twenty-six participants, consisting of 40 participants with a primary diagnosis of hypochondriasis, 41 participants with a primary diagnosis of anxiety disorder, and 45 healthy controls, completed a multidimensional questionnaire for the assessment of health behavior and other measures for the evaluation of general psychopathology, illness anxiety, depression, and general anxiety. Patients with hypo…
Generalization gradients for fear and disgust in human associative learning
2021
AbstractPrevious research indicates that excessive fear is a critical feature in anxiety disorders; however, recent studies suggest that disgust may also contribute to the etiology and maintenance of some anxiety disorders. It remains unclear if differences exist between these two threat-related emotions in conditioning and generalization. Evaluating different patterns of fear and disgust learning would facilitate a deeper understanding of how anxiety disorders develop. In this study, 32 college students completed threat conditioning tasks, including conditioned stimuli paired with frightening or disgusting images. Fear and disgust were divided into two randomly ordered blocks to examine di…
Motor cortex tRNS improves pain, affective and cognitive impairment in patients with fibromyalgia: Preliminary results of a randomised sham-controlle…
2017
Objective. Fibromyalgia (FM) is a clinical syndrome characterised by widespread musculoskeletal pain, chronic fatigue, cognitive deficits, and sleep and mood disorders. The effectiveness of most pharmacological treatments is limited, and there is a need for new, effective and well-tolerated therapies. It has recently been shown that transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) of the motor cortex reduces pain, and that tDCS of the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) improves anxiety, depression and cognitive impairment in FM patients. The new technique of transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) using randomly changing alternating currents has very recently been shown to improve w…
Life satisfaction, anxiety, depression and resilience across the life span of men
2009
To determine (a) the relationship between life satisfaction, anxiety, depression and ageing in the male community and (b) to identify the impact of vulnerability factors, personal and social resources on life satisfaction and distress.A stratified random sample of the German male population (N = 2144) was investigated by standardized questionnaires of life satisfaction (FLZ(M)), depression, anxiety (PHQ), resilience (RS-11) and self-esteem (RSS).No age-related change was found regarding overall life satisfaction. Satisfaction with health decreased in midlife (51-60 years), while the importance of health increased. Importance of and satisfaction with partnership and sexuality were only reduc…
Virtual reality versus computer-aided exposure treatments for fear of flying
2011
Evidence is growing that two modalities of computer-based exposure therapies—virtual reality and computer-aided psychotherapy—are effective in treating anxiety disorders, including fear of flying. However, they have not yet been directly compared. The aim of this study was to analyze the efficacy of three computer-based exposure treatments for fear of flying: virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET), computer-aided exposure with a therapist’s (CAE-T) assistance throughout exposure sessions, and self-administered computer-aided exposure (CAE-SA). A total of 60 participants with flying phobia were randomly assigned to VRET, CAE-T, or CAE-SA. Results indicate that the three interventions were …
Longitudinal study of alexithymia and multiple sclerosis
2013
Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the course of alexithymia and its relation with anxiety and depression in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), over a period of 5 years. Methods Sixty-two MS patients were examined at two timepoints, 5 years apart, and they answered questionnaires collecting socio-demographic, medical, and psychological data (depression, anxiety, alexithymia). Results Our data show that emotional disorders remain stable over time in patients with MS, particularly as regards alexithymia and anxiety. Conversely, the rate of depression decreased between the two evaluations, falling from 40% to 26%. The two dimensions of alexithymia (i.e., difficulty describi…
Searching for a job: Cardiac responses to acute stress and the mediating role of threat appraisal in young people.
2016
Being unemployed and looking for a job has become a source of stress for many people in several European countries. However, little attention has been paid to the impact of this stressful situation on the individuals' psychophysiological stress responses. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of being an unemployed job seeker on cognitive threat appraisal and cardiac responses to a psychosocial stressor. We exposed a group of unemployed job seekers (N = 42) and a matched group of unemployed non-job seekers (N = 40) to a standardized social stressor in form of job interview, the Trier Social Stress Test. Our results showed that unemployed job seekers manifest lower cardiac resp…
Predicting autonomic reactivity to public speaking: don't get fixed on self-report data!
2002
The study focused on the prediction of autonomic reactivity to public speaking by using self-report and objective data (other-ratings and behavioral data) of task-induced nervousness and task engagement. Forty-one individuals participated in the study. Heart rate and electrodermal activity were recorded during baseline and speech delivery. Stepwise multiple regression analyses indicated that self-report data of task engagement and nervousness largely failed in predicting psychophysiological reactivity to the speech task. After controlling for baseline values, demographic variables, and self-report data objective variables, however, were strong predictors of autonomic reactivity. Heart rate …