Depression and anxiety can double heart disease risk

Anxiety and depression are associated with mechanisms that promote atherosclerosis. Most recent studies of emotional disturbances in coronary artery disease (CAD) have focused on depression only. Anxiety and depression predict greater MACE (Major adverse cardiac events) risk in patients with stable CAD (Coronary Artery Disease). – Matters of the mind can affect matters of the heart. A new study from Universit? de Montr?al and McGill University researchers has found that major anxiety and/or depression, can double a coronary artery disease patient’s chances of repeated heart ailments. This is one of the first studies to focus on patients with stable coronary artery disease ? not those who were hospitalized for events such as a heart attack.

Exercise may benefit older breast cancer survivors

An Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute study will evaluate the beneficial effects of aerobic exercise and resistance training for breast cancer survivors who are at least two years post-treatment with chemotherapy or radiation. – An Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute study is examining different forms of exercise for women older than 65 who have had breast cancer. Different exercises may benefit older breast cancer survivors.

Depressed girls can’t smell the roses

New Tel Aviv University (TAU) research links depression to loss of the sense of smell, suggesting that the blues may have biological roots. – Can’t smell the roses? Maybe you’re depressed. Smell too much like a rose yourself? Maybe you’ve got the same problem. Scientists from Tel Aviv University recently linked depression to a biological mechanism that affects the olfactory glands. It might explain why some women, without realizing it, wear too much perfume.

Children’s sleep duration can influence their weight, behavior

Children?s sleep duration differs according to the time of day, week, and year, and can influence their weight, behavior, revealed in a study published in the January 1 issue of the journal SLEEP. – The duration of a child’s sleep can vary, depending on the time of day, week and year. Further, children who don’t get enough nightly sleep are more likely to be overweight and have behavioral problems.

Massage eases pain and anxiety after surgery

Massage can ease pain after surgery and may complement the use of drugs for patients, US researchers said. – A 20-minute evening back massage may help relieve pain and reduce anxiety following major surgery when given in addition to pain medications, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Late developmental growth may risk depression

Children with low weight during infancy or slight developmental delays may be at greater risk for developing depression.
– Psychiatrists remain divided as to how to define and classify the mood and anxiety disorders, the most common mental disorders. Committees across the globe are currently pondering how best to carve nature at its anxious joints for the fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V), the “gold standard” reference book for psychiatrists.

Distorted self image the result of visual brain glitch, UCLA study

Body dysmorphic disorder tends to run in families and is especially common in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Thirty percent of people with BDD suffer from eating disorders, which are also linked to a distorted self-image.
– Although they look normal, people suffering from body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD, perceive themselves as ugly and disfigured. New imaging research reveals that the brains of these people look normal but function abnormally when processing visual details.

Why some young women are at greater risk of developing anorexia nervosa

Young women with past anorexia nervosa show vastly different patterns of brain activity compared to similar women without the eating disorder.
– Even after more than a year of maintaining a normalized body weight, young women who recovered from anorexia nervosa show vastly different patterns of brain activity compared to similar women without the eating disorder, Walter H. Kaye, M.D., professor of psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and colleagues report in the December issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

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