Even Mild Depression, Anxiety Hurts the Heart: Study

HealthDay – 2 mins 35 secs ago TUESDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- Even mild depression or anxiety may raise your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and other causes, according to British researchers.

And the greater the level of psychological distress, the higher the odds of death from heart disease, the researchers say.

"The fact that an increased risk of mortality was evident, even at low levels of psychological distress, should prompt research into whether treatment of these very common, minor symptoms can reduce this increased risk of death," said lead researcher Tom Russ, a clinical research fellow at the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Center of the University of Edinburgh.

For the study, published online July 31 in BMJ, Russ and colleagues analyzed 10 studies of men and women enrolled in the Health Survey for England from 1994 to 2004. Data on more than 68,000 adults aged 35 and older was included overall.

Each study looked for connections between chronic psychological distress and the risk of dying from heart disease and other causes, including cancer.

Pooling data in this way is called a meta-analysis. In such a study, researchers look for common patterns across several studies.

Over eight years' follow-up, the researchers found even very mild depression or anxiety -- subclinical levels -- raised the risk of all-cause death, including cardiovascular disease, by 20 percent. Looking specifically at death from heart disease, mild psychological distress raised this risk 29 percent, the study found.

For the highest level of depression or anxiety, the risk of all-cause death rose 94 percent, the researchers found.

Risk of death from cancer was increased 9 percent in cases of very severe depression or anxiety, the investigators found. Lower levels of psychological distress were not associated with increased risk of cancer death.

An individual's actual risk of death remains small, however, and people shouldn't assume they are doomed to an early death if they suffer from a psychological disorder.

Dr. Glyn Lewis, a professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the University of Bristol in England and author of an accompanying journal editorial, said evidence linking stress to heart disease continues to mount.

"If we can reduce the psychological impact, then this should reduce the biological response," he said. But how to accomplish that remains a puzzle.

A type of psychological treatment called cognitive behavioral therapy is designed to help people change the way they respond to potentially stressful events, Lewis said. Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches patients to change their thinking about situations and to react less emotionally.

"This might help people with

View the Original article

Failed IVF attempt tied to depression, anxiety

Reuters – 1 hr 40 mins ago NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who are stressed and anxious before in vitro fertilization (IVF) are no less likely to have a baby, new research suggests. But if the treatment fails, it may take a toll on their mental health.

In two separate studies in the journal Fertility and Sterility, researchers found women with anxiety or depression symptoms were just as likely as others to become pregnant.

One study focused on women undergoing IVF and the other followed women trying to conceive naturally.

"Our findings are consistent with the most recent research," said Lauri A. Pasch, a clinical psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco Center for Reproductive Health, and the lead researcher on the IVF study.

Based on that body of research, she told Reuters Health, "I think we can safely say to women,

View the Original article

Anxiety, Depression May Raise Stroke Risk

HealthDay – 4 hrs ago MONDAY, June 18 (HealthDay News) --People suffering from anxiety, depression, sleeplessness or other forms of psychological distress are at greater risk of death from a stroke, according to a new study.

Researchers from University College London pointed out that psychological distress affects about 15 percent to 20 percent of the general population. Previous research has linked these common mental conditions with coronary artery disease, but an association with stroke and other cardiovascular diseases has not been established, they said.

The researchers examined information from a study of 68,652 adults who participated in the Health Survey for England. The vast majority of participants were white, 45 percent were men and the average was about 55.

Nearly 15 percent of the people questioned said they were affected by psychological distress, most of them women. Those who reported having psychological distress also tended to be younger, smokers and taking medication for high blood pressure. They also tended to have lower incomes, the researchers added.

After following the participants for an average of about eight years, the study's authors found 2,367 deaths from ischemic heart disease (blocked artery), stroke and other cardiovascular problems.

The study was published June 18 in CMAJ.

"Psychological distress was associated with death from cardiovascular disease, and the relation remained consistent for specific disease outcomes, including ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease," Dr. Mark Hamer, of the college department of epidemiology and public health, and his co-authors said in a journal news release. "We saw an association between psychological distress and risk of cerebrovascular disease among our participants, all of whom had been free from cardiovascular disease at baseline. This association was similar in size to the association between psychological distress and ischemic heart disease in the same group."

The researchers concluded that questionnaires could help doctors screen their patients for common mental illnesses, which could reduce their risk of death from heart disease and stroke.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health provides more information on the causes of stroke.

View the Original article

Anxiety Linked to Smarts in Brain Study

HealthDay – 30 mins ago WEDNESDAY, April 18 (HealthDay News) -- Worrying may have co-evolved with intelligence as an important survival trait in humans, new research suggests.

For the study, researchers looked at 26 people with generalized anxiety disorder and compared them to a group of 18 healthy volunteers without the disorder. The investigators found that both worry and high intelligence were associated with brain activity measured by the depletion of the nutrient choline in the brain's white matter.

This suggests that worry may have co-evolved with intelligence, said Dr. Jeremy Coplan, a professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in New York City.

"While excessive worry is generally seen as a negative trait and high intelligence as a positive one, worry may cause our species to avoid dangerous situations, regardless of how remote a possibility they may be," Coplan said in a center news release.

"In essence, worry may make people 'take no chances,' and such people may have higher survival rates. Thus, like intelligence, worry may confer a benefit upon the species," he added.

The study was published in a recent issue of the journal Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience.

More information

The U.S. National Mental Health Institute has more about generalized anxiety disorder.

View the Original article

Anxiety Might Help People Sniff Out Threats

HealthDay – 1 hr 1 min ago FRIDAY, April 6 (HealthDay News) -- Anxiety improves a person's ability to smell potentially threatening odors, according to a new study.

Smell is essential to animals in order to detect, locate and identify predators. Odors also trigger powerful emotional responses in humans, the study authors pointed out.

Researchers Elizabeth Krusemark and Wen Li of the University of Wisconsin-Madison exposed 14 young adults to different types of odors while they underwent MRI brain scans. The participants' anxiety levels and breathing patterns were also recorded.

As the volunteers' anxiety levels rose, so did their ability to detect negative odors. The investigators also found that communication between the sensory and emotional areas of the brain increased in response to negative odors, particularly when people were anxious.

This heightened communication between these brain areas could be an important mechanism to boost awareness of potential threats, the researchers said.

The study was published in a recent online issue of the journal Chemosensory Perception.

More information

The Social Issues Research Centre has more about the sense of smell.

View the Original article