Veterans aged 55 years or older with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) appear to have a higher risk of developing dementia over a 7-year period, compared to individuals without PTSD, says a new report published in Archives of Psychiatry today, a JAMA/Archives journal.

PTSD occurs in a significant number of veterans returning from conflict areas or war zones, the article informs. Up to 17% of veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan are thought to have PTSD, while 10% to 15% of Vietnam veterans had PTSD symptoms for at least 15 years after their return. Previous studies have linked PTSD to a wide variety of medical conditions in younger and middle-aged veterans, along with declines in thinking, learning and memory (cognitive performance).

Kristine Yaffe, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, and San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and team studied 181,093 veterans, aged 55 years and older (average age 68.8, 96.5% men) between 1997 and 2000. 53,155 of them had PTSD and 127,938 did not.

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By Vivienne Balonwu in the category of Anxiety And Stress

Traditionally, the most successful methods used to combat stage fright have been prescribed medications (beta blockers) and aerobic exercise. In the most recent issue of Biofeedback, researchers studied another technique: the effect of biofeedback training on Musical Performance Anxiety (MPA). MPA is a severe form of stage fright marked by high anxiety levels and impaired performance.

Up to 72% of all musicians may suffer from MPA. Like other forms of stage fright, MPA is a complex experience that has mental, emotional, physiological, and psychological components.

In this study, university student-musicians performed in front of an audience and were assessed. Later, they participated in four 30- to 50-minute sessions during which they were taught techniques to control their heart rhythm patterns and focus their thoughts and emotions. A heart rate biofeedback device provided feedback, so participants could tell when the techniques were working. At the end of the training, they were asked to perform for an audience again.

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Having sessions with a psychologist to learn how to reduce stress helped women with recurrent breast cancer live longer, with better quality of life, according to new research from the US.

You can read about the Phase III study, by Dr Barbara L. Andersen, a professor in the department of psychology at the Ohio State University, Columbus, and colleagues, in the 8 June Online First issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

The researchers studied women with newly diagnosed Stage II or III breast cancer who were randomly assigned to one of two groups: intervention and assessment-only. In addition to normal assessments, the women in the intervention group had sessions with a psychologist where they learned more about causes of cancer and how to reduce stress, and the other group just had the assessments.

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By Vivienne Balonwu in the category of Anxiety And Stress

The demands associated with creative work activities pose key challenges for workers, according to new research out of the University of Toronto that describes the stress associated with some aspects of work and its impact on the boundaries between work and family life.

Researchers measured the extent to which people engaged in creative work activities using data from a national survey of more than 1,200 American workers. Sociology professor Scott Schieman (UofT) and his coauthor and PhD student Marisa Young (UofT) asked participants questions like: “How often do you have the chance to learn new things?”; “How often do you have the chance to solve problems?”; “How often does your job allow you to develop your skills or abilities?” and “How often does your job require you to be creative?” They used responses to these questions to create an index that they label “creative work activities.”

The authors describe three core sets of findings:

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By Vivienne Balonwu in the category of Anxiety And Stress

A research conducted at the University of Granada has identified the different effects of being of a nervous disposition and being anxious at a given moment on what happens around us. Being of a nervous disposition and being anxious at a given moment affects our attention to what happens.

This finding will help improve the treatment of anxiety disorders, so common in our days. In fact, anxiety has become one of the most common conditions among the population, which can explain the negative connotations usually associated to this term.

The study was developed by Antonia Pilar Pacheco-Unguetti, Alberto Acosta, Alicia Callejas and Juan Lupiáñez, from the department of Experimental Psychology and Behavioural Physiology of the University of Granada. It will be published in the next issue of the prestigious journal Psychological Science.

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