http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Being forced to exercise may still help reduce anxiety and depression just as exercising voluntarily does, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-anxiety-stress.html Health Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:03:08 EST news286120981 An investigation in one of the last issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics addresses the evaluation of psychological stress in the setting of chronic cardiovascular disease. In a number of circumstances allostatic systems may either be overstimulated or not perform normally, and this condition has been termed 'allostatic load', or the price of adaptation. Findings from several studies suggest that it is associated with worse health conditions and plays a significant role in the susceptibility, course, and outcome of cardiovascular (CV) diseases. Recently, Fava and colleagues introduced clinimetric criteria for assessing allostatic overload syndrome (AOS) based on: (a) current identifiable sources of distress in the form of acute or chronic stress (the stressor is judged to tax or exceed the individual's coping skills when its full nature and circumstances are evaluated), and (b) psychiatric symptoms (DSM-IV) or psychosomatic symptoms (DCPR) or significant impairment in social or occupational functioning or in psychological well-being occurring within 6 months after the onset of the stressor. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-psychological-stress-chronic-cardiovascular-disease.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 19 Mar 2013 05:13:24 EST news282888706 (Medical Xpress)—No mother wants to see her child hospitalized, but how she copes with it could impact the child's anxiety level, a recent study by a University of Alabama researcher found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-importance-coping-skills-hospital.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 06 Mar 2013 10:20:04 EST news281786378 Early life stress like that experienced by ill newborns appears to take an early toll of the heart, affecting its ability to relax and refill with oxygen-rich blood, researchers report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-early-life-stress-toll-heart.html Cardiology Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:06:58 EST news280663610 Concerns and anxieties about one's close relationships appear to function as a chronic stressor that can compromise immunity, according to new research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-anxiety-relationships-immunity-vulnerability-illness.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:59:22 EST news279809952 (HealthDay)—It's hard to quibble with the speed and convenience of connecting through texts and instant messages, but scientists say that today's ubiquitous online social communication may not confer the same feel-good effects as plain old talking. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-texting-doesnt-feel-good-effects.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:20:01 EST news278867241 New research links loneliness to a number of dysfunctional immune responses, suggesting that being lonely has the potential to harm overall health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-loneliness-chronic-stress-taxes-immune.html Psychology & Psychiatry Sat, 19 Jan 2013 15:00:01 EST news277736696 If you are among the 50 percent of Americans who suffer from insomnia, then you have probably tried everything – from warm milk to melatonin pills or prescription medications to induce sleep – with varying degrees of success and side effects. But what if sleep could be achieved not by a substance, but through 'balancing' brain activity? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-music-ears-good-night-therapy.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 20 Nov 2012 11:08:22 EST news272632092 (HealthDay)—Some of the numbers are staggering: more than 75 Americans dead, thousands evacuated from their homes, millions left without power for days and billions of dollars in damage from "superstorm" Sandy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-superstorm-sandy-toll-mental-health.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 01 Nov 2012 11:50:02 EST news270987924 (Medical Xpress)—You're waiting in the reception area of your doctor's office. The magazines are uninteresting. The pictures on the wall are dull. The second hand on the wall clock moves so excruciatingly slowly that you're sure it must be broken. You feel depleted and irritated about being stuck in this seemingly endless moment. You want to be engaged by something—anything—when a thought, so familiar from childhood, comes to mind: "I'm bored!" http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-im-boredresearch-attention-unengaged-mind.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:16:28 EST news267891382 The researchers, from the Guttmacher Institute in New York, base their findings on feedback data from almost 9,500 women who had an abortion in 2008 (Abortion Patient Survey), in the light of 11 "disruptive" events, and the links between these, poverty, and contraceptive use. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-distressing-life-events-poverty-abortions.html Health Mon, 20 Aug 2012 18:30:03 EST news264694054 (Medical Xpress) -- Brooding, or excessive rumination over negative feelings, is known to interfere with important problem-solving abilities, while immediate distraction from those feelings can increase problem-solving capacity, according to new research by a University of Maine Department of Psychology faculty member and a colleague. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-distraction-negative-linked-problem.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 21 Jun 2012 05:37:35 EST news259475843 A new article in The Quarterly Review of Biology helps explain why the immune system often makes us worse while trying to make us well. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-healthy-worse-sick.html Immunology Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:53:32 EST news251477606 Stress in the second and third months of pregnancy can shorten pregnancies, increase the risk of pre-term births and may affect the ratio of boys to girls being born, leading to a decline in male babies. These are the conclusions of a study that investigated the effect on pregnant women of the stress caused by the 2005 Tarapaca earthquake in Chile. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-stress-early-pregnancy-shorter-pregnancies.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Thu, 08 Dec 2011 04:13:52 EST news242540020 During financial hard times, some older adults may turn to alcohol or cigarettes as a way to cope, according to a study in the November issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-money-strains-older-adults-alcohol.html Health Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:38:18 EST news240039486 A woman goes into labor, and gives birth. The newborn is swaddled and placed to sleep in a nearby bassinet, or taken to the hospital nursery so that the mother can rest. Despite this common practice, new research published in Biological Psychiatry provides new evidence that separating infants from their mothers is stressful to the baby. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-maternal-stresses-baby.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:48:19 EST news239449692 Acute stress is thought to precipitate alcohol drinking. Yet the ways that acute stress can increase alcohol consumption are unclear. A new study investigated whether different phases of response to an acute stressor can alter the subjective effects of alcohol. Findings indicate bi-directional relationships between alcohol and stress. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-stress-alcohol.html Health Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:10:01 EST news229967189 Insomnia is the most prevalent sleep disorder, affecting up to 50 percent of the adult population in the United States on a weekly basis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-forest-baptist-clinical-insomnia-technology.html Medical research Thu, 30 Jun 2011 11:39:13 EST news228652744 Perceived racial discrimination is associated with an increased risk of sleep disturbance, which may have a negative impact on mental and physical health, suggests a research abstract that will be presented Tuesday, June 14, in Minneapolis, Minn., at SLEEP 2011, the 25th Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-problems-link-racism-poor-health.html Health Tue, 14 Jun 2011 04:33:34 EST news227244790 As our environment degrades and technology improves, can technological versions of nature become suitable replacements? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-real-nature-technological-stand-ins-human.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 17 May 2011 14:09:02 EST news224860118 A team of researchers is beginning to see exactly what the response to threats looks like in the brain at the cellular and molecular levels. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-picture-threat-brain-neuroinflammation.html Neuroscience Tue, 03 May 2011 11:27:11 EST news223640808