Anxiety

Listening to music may help reduce anxiety and stress in individuals who suffer from a heart disease, a study indicates.

Having heart disease can be stressful, not knowing when or if you may suffer a heart attack, and stress and anxiety can increase this chance by increasing your blood pressure. However, listening to music may lead to lower heart rate, blood pressure, and less anxiety and stress, a metaanalysis shows.

The review was done using 23 studies with a total of 1,461 patients. Two studies used music therapists, but most used interventions where healthcare professionals handed out pre-recorded CDs of music. The studies had patients listen to a variety of types of music and for different durations.

The music appeared to lower heart rate and blood pressure in patients with coronary heart disease. There was also an indication that the music improved mood in some individuals; however, this was not the case for individuals who were suffering from depression due to heart disease.

More research is needed into music listening for helping heart disease patients, the reviewers note.

Source:

Psych Central: Music Relieves Stress in Heart Patients

A new study suggests depressed people may be missing out on the positive things in life. The study was conducted by Laren Conklin, graduate student in psychology, and Daniel Strunk, assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

The researchers used a computer game known as BeanFest to measure participants’ attitudes toward learning new negative and positive information. The game contains good beans and bad beans. A person can distinguish between the two types of beans based on how many speckles a bean has and the shape of the bean. Good beans earned a participant points while bad beans took away points. The goal of the game is to get as many points as possible.

Seventeen college participants with clinical depression and seventeen students without depression participated in the study. During the game phase, each participant played the game, deciding whether or not to accept or reject a bean as it appeared on the computer screen. After each turn, the particpant was shown how many points he or she earned or had detracted if he or she accepted a bean or how many points he or she would have earned or had detracted if he or she had accepted the bean.

Each bean was shown three different times during this phase so that participants had a sufficient opportunity to learn which beans were good versus which beans were bad.

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Researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey are currently conducting a study involving a specialized therapy, which was developed by Dartmouth University to treat individuals suffering from both Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and another serious mental illness. The therapy was adopted from cognitive-behavioral therapy, which focuses on changing thinking and behavioral patterns.

Steven Silverstein, Ph.D., director and Stephanie Marcello, Ph.D. are implementing the study at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Marcello asserts that approximately 60% of individuals suffering from severe PTSD also suffer from another serious mental illness, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or major depression. Research has already discovered that individuals who suffer from a severe mental illness in addition to PTSD rarely have their PTSD symptoms go away on their own. Thus, there is a need for a specialized therapy for people who suffer from both PTSD and another serious mental illness.

Approximately 75 people are currently taking part in the study, which will span four years. The researchers want to treat 200 people by the time four years is over.

The therapy entails relaxation techniques, “cognitive restructuring,” which is a technique used to help individuals realize anxiety-arousing thoughts and helps them replace these thoughts with more realistic ones about themselves and the safety of the environment around them, and information about how stress can cause mental illness symptoms. All participants in the study come from University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey community mental health centers in South Bunswick, Newark, New Bunswick, and Piscataway.

Hopefully, this treatment will prove to be effective for treating individuals with PTSD and another serious mental illness. Perhaps in the future, this form of cognitive-behavioral treatment will become more available so that more individuals suffering with these conditions can receive help.

Source:

Psych Central: Treatment for PTSD and Another Mental Illness

Parents of children with special needs tend to be more stressed than parents without children with disabilities, confirms a new study.

Marsha Mailick Seltzer of the Waisman Center, located at the University of Wisconsin, and her colleagues examined parents’ survey responses and measured their stress for this study. Data was used from the Midlife in the United States study. Parents who had children with special needs included children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Down syndrome, and Bipolar disorder.

The Midlife study included telephone interviews with 82 midlife parents who had children with disabilities. During the interview, parents answered questions about their experiences the previous day in terms of physical symptoms, time use, positive events, and daily stress. The researchers asked parents how often in the past 24 hours they had experienced daily stress, including work stress, arguments, and home stress. These responses were compared to those of parents who had children with no disabilities.

Parents who had children with disabilities were found to have more daily stressors and days where they experienced stress than parents with children without disabilities. While parents with special needs children experienced at least one stressor on 50% of the study days, parents with kids with no disabilities experienced at least one stressor on 40% of study days. Additionally, parents with disabled children reported having more physical health problems.

Cortisol levels were also measured, and the researchers discovered parents with special needs children showed a pattern of chronic stress that was higher than normal on days they spent more time with their kids.

Seltzer asserts this study shows parents with disabled children would benefit from stress reduction techniques.

Patricia Wright, national director of autism services for the Easter Seals agrees that parents with disabled children need support. Unfortunately, she says, respite care is often unavailable for these parents due to the lack of funding.

Perhaps future research will focus on intervention programs for stressed parents with children who have special needs.

Source:

Psych Central: Parental Stress With Special Needs Children

Bibliophobia is the fear of books. While some individuals with bibliophobia may be afraid of all books, many suffer from a subset of bibliophobia; in other words, they fear a specific type of book. For instance, an individual with bibliophobia may be afraid of textbooks, children’s books, or non-fiction books.

Some specific types of bibliophobia with names of their own include mythophobia, which is a fear of legends that are written down (such as in a book), and metrophobia, which is the fear of poetry.

Bibliophobia clearly affects one’s life significantly. A person with a fear of books may be afraid to read for school or work. He or she may also be afraid to read aloud, which may lead to skipping classes or sitting in the back of the classroom.

It is important for therapists to figure out what is at the root of bibliophobia so that they may deal with the underlying cause in therapy.

In therapy, therapists may work with the individual suffering from bibliophobia in gradually exposing them to the fear. This type of therapy is typically very gradual, and caution is typically used as to not push the individual faster than he or she is ready to go.

If you suffer from bibliophobia and are ready to conquer your fear, you may want to look for an exposure therapist in your area.

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About: Bibliophobia