Stress and alzheimer’s linked?

A new study from the Salk Institute links repeated emotional stress and “neurofibrillary tangles” (a precursor to Alzheimer’s).  Be warned, the article is rather technical

“A long-term study of about 800 members of religious orders had found that the people who were most prone to stress were twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, but the nature of the link between the two has been elusive,” says Paul E. Sawchenko, Ph.D., a professor in the Neuronal Structure and Function Laboratory, who led a phalanx of Salk researchers contributing to the current study.

Anxiety affects obesity surgery

Obese people considering gastric bypass surgery should also be screened for anxiety and/or depression. According to a a new study published on Thursday, people with anxiety and depression lost less weight then those who do not have anxiety and depression.

Many hospitals and insurers require surgery candidates to go through a psychological evaluation before obesity surgery to make sure they are mentally fit for the operation and the lifestyle change afterward. Depressed people aren’t automatically disqualified for surgery, but those who are suicidal or abusing drugs and alcohol are usually ruled out.

 

Caregivers

An insightful article in the L.A Times appears about a middle age woman who is caught caring for her ill mother and trying to raise her 5 year old daughter.

“There are times when I’m so stressed I know [my blood pressure] has to be high,” says Wood. “I feel trapped sometimes; on the bad days I feel trapped.”

Memory problems associated with anxiety and depression

Researchers from Rush University have found that those who suffer from depression and anxiety often have memory lapses. The researchers are trying to predict early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

They said those who most often are anxious or depressed were 40 times more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment, a form of memory loss that is often a transitional stage between normal aging and dementia.

Neural basis of anxiety

From the European Molecular Biology Laboratory:

People who suffer from anxiety tend to interpret ambiguous situations, situations that could potentially be dangerous but not necessarily so, as threatening. Researchers from the Mouse Biology Unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL] in Italy have now uncovered the neural basis for such anxiety behaviour in mice. In the current issue of Nature Neuroscience they report that a receptor for the messenger serotonin and a neural circuit involving a brain region called the hippocampus play crucial roles in mediating fear responses in ambiguous situations.

Types of anxiety

Anxiety disorders are the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorder in the United States. And not surprisingly anti-anxiety medications lead the pack as most prescribed. According to new research from the University of Illinois there are two types of anxiety. The first is anxious apprehension, which includes worry and verbal rambling. The second is anxious arousal, which is intense fear and panic.

“This study looks at two facets of anxiety that often are not distinguished,” said U. of I. psychology professor Gregory A. Miller, co-principal investigator on the study with psychology professor Wendy Heller. “We had reason to think there were different brain mechanisms, different parts of the brain active at different times, depending on what type of anxiety one is facing.”

Yoga helps with anxiety and depression

Apparently yoga elevates GABA levels in the brain. Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine suggest that yoga could be a possible treatment for depression and anxiety, as these disorders are typically associated with low GABA levels.

The World Health Organization reports that mental illness makes up to fifteen percent of disease in the world. Depression and anxiety disorders both contribute to this burden and are associated with low GABA levels. Currently, these disorders have been successfully treated with pharmaceutical agents designed to increase GABA levels.

Study examines brain’s own marijuana

Endocannabinoid, I have never heard of it before. Apparently we make it in our brain. Endocannabinoids are made to regulate stress, anxiety and stress related behavior. The University of Buffalo will be studying how these endocannabinoids function in the brain.

“It is widely accepted that one of the major reasons that people use and abuse marijuana is to relieve stress,” according to Samir Haj-Dahmane, Ph.D., neuroscientist and principal investigator on the RIA study. “However, because marijuana can be addictive, it cannot be used to treat stress-related mood disorders such as anxiety. An alternative strategy may be to directly target the ‘brain’s own marijuana.’”

Anxiety and cardiology

Cardiac health appears to have a link to anxiety.

A number of studies have looked at the toll that mental stress takes on cardiac health, but most have focused on depression, not anxiety. The few studies that have examined the role that anxiety might play in heart disease have usually measured anxiety only once, not over the course of time, according to a report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

This study involved 516 patients with heart disease who completed a standard anxiety questionnaire annually for an average of 3.4 years. The study group was 82 percent male with an average age of 68 years.