“Take for example the situation of a jury member or voting in an election — if the jury member had washed their hands prior to delivering their verdict, they may judge the crime less harshly.

“Similarly, someone may find it easier to overlook a political misdemeanor had they performed an action that made them feel ‘clean’ prior to casting their vote.”

The research was conducted through two experiments with university students. In the first, they were asked to complete a scrambled sentence task involving 40 sets of four words each. By underlining any three words, a sentence could be formed.

For the neutral condition, the task contained 40 sets of neutral words, but for the cleanliness condition, half of the sets contained words such as ‘pure, washed, clean, immaculate, and pristine’.

The participants were then asked to rate a series of moral dilemmas including keeping money found inside a wallet, putting false information on a resume and killing a terminally ill plane crash survivor in order to avoid starvation.

The second experiment saw the students watch a ‘disgusting’ film clip before rating the same moral dilemmas. However, half the group were asked to first wash their hands.

The findings from both experiments demonstrated that those who were subject to the cognitive feeling of cleanliness exercised less severe moral judgment than their counterparts.

The study is found in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Source: Association for Psychological Science

Sometimes, however, one or both partners place too much emotional weight on their relationship. As a result, men or women may tend to evaluate their self-worth solely based on the outcomes of their romantic interactions.

This is what psychologists term as relationship-contingent self-esteem (RCSE), and, according to University of Houston researcher Chip Knee, it’s an unhealthy factor in romantic relationships.

“Individuals with high levels of RCSE are very committed to their relationships, but they also find themselves at risk to become devastated when something goes wrong — even a relatively minor event,” said Knee, UH assistant professor of psychology and director of the university’s Interpersonal Relations and Motivation Research Group.

“An overwhelming amount of the wrong kind of commitment can actually undermine a relationship.”

Knee added that RCSE can trigger depression and anxieties during even the most minor or common relationship-based incidents, such as miscommunication, short spats over noncritical matters or a critique of one’s personality or appearance.

It also factors into one or more partners developing manic, obsessive (or needy) behaviors with regard to love.

RCSE might place one at risk for serious mood changes after breakups, divorce or threats to one’s relationship. Identifying it during the early stages of a relationship can prevent such negative outcomes or help partners recognize that they are incompatible.

Knee and a group of researchers observed the impact of RCSE among heterosexual college students in a series of studies.

Included in these studies was a 14-day diary procedure in which 198 participants recorded the most positive and negative events in their romantic relationships.

Also documented in this daily diary were participants’ feelings about themselves and their relationships.

“What we found with this particular study was that people with higher levels of RCSE felt worse about themselves during negative moments in their relationships,” Knee said.

“It’s as if it doesn’t matter why the negative occurrence happens or who was at fault. The partners with stronger RCSE still feel badly about themselves.”

Individuals with RCSE also are prone to react more emotionally to relationship-based situations, Knee added. Instead of taking a step back, analyzing a situation and determining how to best address it, those with RCSE respond immediately and impulsively.

“When something happens in a relationship, these individuals don’t separate themselves from it,” he said.

“They immediately feel personally connected to any negative circumstance in a relationship and become anxious, more depressed and hostile.”

The research, “Relationship-Contingent Self-Esteem - The Ups and Downs of Romantic Relationships,” was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Source: University of Houston

The data, collected when the participants were 24 and 27 years old, comes from the ongoing Seattle Social Development Project that is following a group of people from childhood into adulthood.

“We are seeing that the intervention appears to affect developmentally important outcomes that change as people age,” said J. David Hawkins, lead author of the study and founding director of the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group.

“The effects of working with children in elementary school show up in their teen years as their rates of violence, heavy alcohol use and dropping out of school are reduced. By age 21 more of them have completed high school and have better jobs. And by ages 24 and 27 they are above the median in socio-economic status and education and they are having less mental health and sexual health problems.”

Hawkins said the researchers look at both the age 24 and age 27 data to better understand early adulthood.

“By looking at both ages we get a clearer picture of patterns that are starting to emerge.

“This is particularly true of mental health, where at both ages those who received the full intervention during the elementary grades have fewer symptoms and lower rates of anxiety, social phobia, post traumatic stress disorder or a major depressive episode.”

The study involved 598 students from 15 Seattle public schools serving high-crime neighborhoods. The participants were divided into three groups. One group of 146 students received the intervention in grades one through six. A second group of 251 students received a partial intervention only in the fifth and sixth grades and the third group of 201 children was not exposed to the program.

The intervention involved teachers, student and their parents. Teachers were given training in classroom management and strategies for instruction. Children were taught impulse control, how to get what they want without aggressive behavior, how to recognize the feelings of other people and how to stay out of trouble and still have a good time.

Parents were taught family management skills, how to involve children in setting family rules, how to use positive reinforcement and how to better monitor their children.

The young adults surveyed in this study were evenly split between males and females. Forty-six percent were white, 26 percent black, 22 percent Asian-American and 6 percent Native American.

Hawkins said a “dose” effect noted from the intervention when participants were younger was still evident. Those people who received the full intervention in grades one through six showed the strongest effects and the most positive functioning in young adulthood.

Those who received the partial intervention showed lesser effects, though they fared somewhat better than people who did not receive either intervention.

The study also showed those who received the full intervention had significantly fewer lifetime sexually transmitted diseases.

This finding relates to earlier results from the Seattle Social Development Project that showed children who received the full intervention started having sex later, had fewer sex partners and used condoms more consistently when they were teenagers.

On the economic front, the full-intervention group reported higher income, increased responsibilities at work and more community involvement. However, the full intervention had no effect on reducing substance use or cutting criminal behavior in young adulthood.

“We have documented long-term effects on economic, sexual and mental health from ensuring that urban teachers have the tools to teach the diversity of students they encounter and parents have the skills to raise kids in the complex world in which we live,” said Hawkins.

“The real value in following people over time is that we get to see how what we do in childhood affects their lives and has enduring effects as they change. We can’t know how one phase of development affects the next step unless we follow people over time.”

The results are being published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Source: University of Washington

Lower IQ was also associated with psychiatric disorders that were more persistent and an increased risk of having two or more diagnoses at age 32.

IQ is short for intelligence quotient, a psychological measure of a person’s general intelligence.

The study participants were members of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a cohort of children born in 1972-1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand.

At the initial assessment at age 3, the study had 1,037 children. The participants were also interviewed and tested on their overall health and behavior at ages 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 21, 26 and at age 32, when 96 percent of the original cohort participated. IQs were assessed at ages 7, 9 and 11.

Psychiatric disorders were assessed at ages 18 through 32 in interviews by clinicians who had no knowledge of the subjects’ IQ or psychiatric history.

The authors used IQ as a marker of a concept called cognitive reserve, which refers to variation between people in their brain’s resilience to neuropathological damage.

The results showed that lower childhood IQ predicted an increased risk of a variety of adult mental disorders.

“Lower childhood IQ predicted increased risk of schizophrenia, depression, and generalized anxiety disorder. Individuals with lower childhood IQ also had more persistent depression and anxiety and were more likely to be diagnosed with two or more disorders in adulthood,” said lead author Karestan Koenen, assistant professor of society, human development, and health at HSPH.

No association was found between lower childhood IQ and substance dependence disorders, simple phobia, panic disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The mechanism through which lower childhood IQ might lead to increased risk of adult anxiety disorders is not known, but the authors suggest some possible explanations.

They write that lower childhood IQ might reveal a difference in brain health that makes an individual more vulnerable to certain mental disorders. Another possible mechanism is stress–individuals with lower childhood IQs are less equipped to deal with complex challenges of modern daily life, which may make them more vulnerable to developing mental disorders.

The findings may be helpful in treating individuals with mental health disorders. “Lower childhood IQ was associated with greater severity of mental disorders including persistence over time and having two or more diagnoses at age 32,” said Koenen.

“Since individuals with persistent and multiple mental disorders are more likely to seek services, cognitive ability may be an important factor for clinicians to consider in treatment planning. For example, individuals with lower cognitive ability may find it harder to follow instructions and comply with treatment regimens. By taking clients’ cognitive ability into account, clinicians may improve treatment outcome,” she said.

The results may also be helpful in prevention planning. “Educators and pediatricians should be aware that children with lower cognitive ability may be at greater risk of developing psychiatric disorders. Early detection and intervention aimed at ameliorating mental health problems in these children may prevent these problems from carrying over into adulthood,” said Koenen.

The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study will be published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Source: Harvard School of Public Health

But according to new research published yesterday, fewer than a quarter of those young adults who do have mental concerns seek treatment for them.

And to check on whether such mental health concerns might be triggered by attending college or not, the researchers compared those attending and not attending college and found similar rates of psychiatric illnesses among the two groups. This suggests that the transition from adolescence to adulthood can trigger the onset of a mental health problem regardless of setting.

The researchers analyzed data from over 5,000 young adults aged 19 to 25 years old from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Carlos Blanco, M.D., Ph.D., of the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, and his colleagues analyzed the data to compare the mental health of those enrolled in college at least part-time with those not attending college during the previous year.

The researchers interviewed and assessed for psychiatric disorders those attending (2,188) or not attending (2,904) college during the previous year.

A total of 45.8 percent of college students and 47.7 percent of young adults not in college met the criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder.

The most common disorders in college students were alcohol use disorders (20.4 percent) and personality disorders (17.7 percent), whereas those not in college most frequently met criteria for personality disorders (21.6 percent) and nicotine dependence (20.7 percent).

College students were less likely to have a diagnosis of drug use disorder, nicotine dependence or bipolar disorder and were less likely to have used tobacco. However, their risk of alcohol use disorders was significantly greater.

Treatment rates were low for all psychiatric disorders. College students were significantly less likely to receive treatment for alcohol or drug use disorders than those not in college.

“In view of the high prevalence and low rate of treatment of alcohol use disorders in college students, greater efforts to implement screening and intervention programs on college and university campuses are warranted,” the authors write. “The centralized delivery of campus student health services might offer an advantageous structure for carrying out such screening and interventions.”

Overall, the authors note, the rate of psychiatric disorders is high among young adults, who are at a vulnerable stage of development.

“The vast majority of disorders in this population can be effectively treated with evidence-based psychosocial and pharmacological approaches,” they conclude.

“Early treatment could reduce the persistence of these disorders and their associated functional impairment, loss of productivity and increased health care costs. As these young people represent our nation’s future, urgent action is needed to increase detection and treatment of psychiatric disorders among college students and their non–college-attending peers.”

The study appears in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Source: Archives of General Psychiatry

About 10 percent to 15 percent of older adults have symptoms of depression.

“Depression has been associated with the onset of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cardiac mortality [death],” the authors write.

“To better prevent occurrence of these major disabling and life-threatening diseases, more insight into underlying mechanisms relating depression to these disorders is needed.”

Nicole Vogelzangs, M.Sc., of VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues studied 2,088 adults age 70 to 79 years.

Participants were screened for depression at the beginning of the study and their overall and abdominal obesity was recorded then and again after five years.

Measures of overall obesity included body mass index and body fat percentage, while abdominal obesity was assessed using waist circumference, sagittal diameter (distance between the back and the highest point of the abdomen) and visceral fat (fat between the internal organs) measured by computed tomography.

At the beginning of the study, 4 percent of participants had depression. After adjusting for sociodemographic and other characteristics associated with weight changes, depression was associated with an increase in sagittal diameter and visceral fat over five years.

“Such an association was not found for an increase in overall obesity and also appeared to be independent of changes in overall obesity, suggesting that depressive symptoms are rather specifically associated with fat gain in the visceral region,” the authors write.

There are several mechanisms by which depression might increase abdominal fat, they note. Chronic stress and depression may activate certain brain areas and lead to increased levels of the hormone cortisol, which promotes the accumulation of visceral fat.

Individuals with depression may have unhealthier lifestyles, including a poor diet, that could interact with other physiological factors to produce an increase in abdominal obesity.

“Our longitudinal results suggest that clinically relevant depressive symptoms give rise to an increase in abdominal obesity, in particular visceral fat, which seems to be stronger than and independent of overall obesity,” the authors conclude.

“This could also help explain why depression is often followed by diabetes or cardiovascular disease. Future research should further disentangle these mechanisms because this will yield important information for prevention or treatment of depression-related health consequences.”

The report is found in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Source: JAMA and Archives Journals

“The drugs we use now to treat psychiatric disorders are based on serendipitous discoveries made several decades ago,” he said. “In contrast, in this study we have identified a faulty brain circuit in schizophrenia, found an agent with characteristics that affect a specific molecular target in that circuit, and then tested it to see what happened.”

The effectiveness of the experimental drug on cognition was measured with well-established tests of working memory and with EEG, or electroencephalogram, rather than solely with standard clinical assessment.

Earlier research indicated that a reduction of signaling by the neurotransmitter GABA in circuits in an area of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex may be to blame for some of the cognitive problems in schizophrenia, Dr. Lewis explained.

To compensate for the lower levels of GABA, it appears that a biochemical feedback loop increases the number of a specific type of GABA receptor on neurons to capture more neurotransmitter. The study drug, MK-0777, binds to the alpha-2 subunit of the GABAA receptor and, when GABA is present, increases the flow of ions through the receptor, in essence “turning up the volume” on GABA signaling.

For the study, 15 men with schizophrenia between the ages of 18 and 50 were randomly assigned to take either MK-0777 or a placebo for four weeks. They underwent neuropsychological tests at baseline, two weeks and four weeks after starting the drug, as well as an EEG assessment while doing a cognitive task.

The researchers found that participants who took MK-0777 had improvements in both working memory, meaning the ability to keep information in mind to guide behavior, and the EEG signal that accompanies working memory.

Also, the drug was well tolerated. Still, because the study is small, more trials will have to be done to verify the value of the experimental compound, Dr. Lewis noted.

Source: University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

In the study, a University of Missouri researcher used Palm Pilots as electronic diaries to record and analyze mood variability in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and found that the devices helped bridge an important communication gap between therapists and patients.

“In the clinical setting, patients are not good at assessing their mood retrospectively,” said Tim Trull, professor of psychology in the MU College of Arts and Science.

“Previously, we asked BPD patients to recall and describe when a mood change occurred. This description could vary greatly depending on the patient’s current state of mind and how comfortable the patient felt with the therapist.

“Electronic diaries help solve this problem by requiring that the patient reflect on and rate the degree to which a specific mood is present at that moment.

“At the same time, the device does not require that the individual makes a decision about when a mood change has occurred.”

In the study, patients carried electronic diaries for one month and were prompted randomly to rate their mood on a scale of 1 to 5 up to six times each day. One group of patients had BPD and the other group of patients had depressive disorders.

Researchers found that patients with borderline personality disorder did not have significantly different overall levels of positive or negative moods.

However, the patients with BPD displayed significant variability in their positive and negative moods throughout the month, demonstrated more instability, and reported more extreme changes across successive occasions.

“We may not have known the extent of the mood variability in the BPD patients without the assistance of the Palm Pilots, and the potential use of the device in psychological therapy is very exciting,” Trull said.

“Eventually, programmed Palm Pilots may act as proxy therapists and provide patients with advice on coping skills and other therapeutic interventions, as problems occur in patients’ natural environment.”

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, borderline personality disorder is more common than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and is estimated to affect 2 percent of the population.

It is characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image and behavior, and can lead to suicidal behavior, substance abuse and failed relationships. People with BPD experience mood shifts of depression, irritability, anger, anxiety and fear that can last from a few hours to a few days.

Trull’s study “Affective Instability: Measuring a Core Feature of Borderline Personality Disorder with Ecological Momentary Assessment,” was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Source: University of Missouri

The condition has emotionally paralyzed survivors of 9/11 and broken up survivors’ families.

There is no broadly accepted treatment that can lower the chance of developing the disorder, but thanks to a Tel Aviv University researcher, a medical means of preventing PTSD may be just around the corner.

Prof. Joseph Zohar from the Sackler Medical School, Tel Aviv University, has found that an injection of cortisol shortly after exposure to a traumatic event may prevent the onset of PTSD. He is now taking his animal model findings to the U.S. National Institute of Health and hopes to start clinical trials on this exploratory research within the next year.

PTSD Can Strike “Anyone, Anytime”

Currently, a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is made only after an individual has been living with an acute stress reaction for one month. By then it may be too late to counteract the syndrome.

“Ten to twenty percent of all individuals exposed to trauma develop PTSD,” says Prof. Zohar.

“The challenge is to try to prevent or reduce these numbers. Until now, the clinical and research focus has been on treating PTSD once it developed. We propose to shift the focus to prevention. Based on an animal model, our new clinical findings pave the way for a potential preventive treatment for future victims via cortisol injections.”

Although experienced widely among soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, PTSD can strike anyone who has witnessed or experienced a life-threatening event. Its victims dissociate from loved ones and may relive the traumatic event through everyday triggers, such as the smell of a neighbor’s barbecue or a sound on TV.

Normally, the production of cortisol, a stress hormone, increases immediately after the trauma, but with time returns to normal levels. In those who are diagnosed with PTSD, however, the body’s hormonal system is dysfunctional: there is less secretion of cortisol after exposure, and researchers believe that this underproduction increases vulnerability to PTSD.

Researchers propose that cortisol might be linked to the individual’s ability to forget memories of the traumatic event.

Researchers from both Tel Aviv University and Ben Gurion University, found in an animal model that a high dose of corticosterone, when given immediately after the stress event, reduces the effect of trauma in mice. They believe that corticosterone may dampen an animal’s ability to “remember” the initial trauma time and time again.

The “stressor” in the mouse experiment was litter soaked in cat urine. Twenty-five percent of the mice presented with the litter showed signs of extreme stress, which the researchers correlated to acute stress reaction in humans. Mice that were given shots of corticosterone shortly after their exposure were significantly less “tense” when reminded of the initial trauma by the presentation of a “stressor reminder” stimulus.

The researchers’ next step is to try this potential treatment option on humans in a controlled clinical setting.

“The animal model we developed has given us the basis for investigating this important condition, and it has become an essential tool for clinicians around the globe,” adds Prof. Zohar, an internationally recognized expert in the field of PTSD and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

The research was recently published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Source: Tel Aviv University

The study also showed MBCT to be as cost-effective as prescription drugs in helping people with a history of depression stay well  long-term.

The randomized control trial involved 123 people from urban and rural locations who had suffered repeat depressions and were referred to the trial by their GPs.

The participants were split randomly into two groups. Half continued their ongoing antidepressant drug treatment and the rest participated in an MBCT course and were given the option of coming off antidepressants.

Over the 15 months after the trial, 47 percent of the group following the MBCT course experienced a relapse compared with 60 percent of those continuing their normal treatment, including antidepressant drugs.

In addition, the group on the MBCT program reported a higher quality of life, in terms of their overall enjoyment of daily living and physical well-being.

Members of the study team from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London also compared the cost of providing MBCT programs with the cost of maintenance antidepressant treatment.

The findings suggest that MBCT provides a cost-effective alternative to antidepressant drugs.

Unlike most other psychological therapies, MBCT can be taught in groups by a single therapist, and patients then continue to practice the skills they have learned at home by themselves.

Therefore, MBCT is less costly than individual treatments and is not dependent on having the large number of trained therapists needed for one-to-one psychological treatment.  It could help the National Health Service shorten its waiting lists for psychological therapies.

During the eight-week trial, groups of between eight and fifteen people met with one therapist. They learned a range of meditation exercises that they could continue to practice on their own once the course ended.

Many of the exercises were based on Buddhist meditation techniques and helped the individual take time to focus on the present, rather than dwelling on past events, or planning for future tasks.

The exercises worked in a different way for each person, but many reported greater acceptance of, and more control over, negative thoughts and feelings.

Professor Willem Kuyken of the University of Exeter said: “Anti-depressants are widely used by people who suffer from depression and that’s because they tend to work.

“But, while they’re very effective in helping reduce the symptoms of depression, when people come off them they are particularly vulnerable to relapse. MBCT takes a different approach – it teaches people skills for life. What we have shown is that when people work at it, these skills for life help keep people well.”

Professor Kuyken continues: “Our results suggest MBCT may be a viable alternative for some of the 3.5 million people in the UK known to be suffering from this debilitating condition.

“People who suffer depression have long asked for psychological approaches to help them recover in the long-term and MBCT is a very promising approach. I think we have the basis for offering patients and GPs an alternative to long-term anti-depressant medication. We are planning to conduct a larger trial to put these results to the test and to examine how MBCT works.”

MBCT was developed by a team of psychologists from Toronto (Zindel Segal), Oxford (Mark Williams) and Cambridge (John Teasdale) in 2002 to help people who suffer repeated bouts of depression.

It focuses on targeting negative thinking and aims to help people who are very vulnerable to recurring depression stop depressed moods from spiraling out of control into a full episode of depression. MBCT is becoming more widely available as part of psychological treatment services in the NHS.

Source: University of Exeter

The retrospective study examined the medical records of 407 patients with strabismus (misaligned eyes) and compared them with records of children matched for age and sex but with normal eye alignment.

Children with eyes that diverged (exotropia) were three times more likely to develop a psychiatric disorder than were the control subjects, while those with inward deviating eyes (esotropia) showed no increase in the incidence of mental illnesses.

Brian Mohney, M.D., the Mayo Clinic pediatric ophthalmologist who led the study, says the results can help alert physicians to potential problems in their pediatric patients.

“Pediatricians and family practice physicians who see children with strabismus should be aware of the increased risk of mental illness,” says Dr. Mohney.

“They can hopefully be alert to the earliest signs of psychiatric problems in patients with exotropia, so they can consider having them seen by a psychologist or psychiatrist.”

Strabismus is a misalignment of the eyes that affects three to five percent of children, and about 125,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United States.

Further information about the study, including a video interview with Dr. Mohney describing the findings and how the study was prompted by a medical student’s observation, is available on the Mayo Clinic News Blog at: http://newsblog.mayoclinic.org/2008/11/25/eye-divergence-triples-mental-illness-risk/

Source: Mayo Clinic

The report cites excessive workloads, cost cutting, a hostile work environment and competing role demands as causing the stress.

The study was based on a survey of over 1,000 registered nurses and personal care workers in Victoria last year.

University of Melbourne researchers Associate Professor Leisa Sargent, Professor Bill Harley and Ms Belinda Allen say the study also reveals that long-term or aged care facilities need to drastically improve their training and human resource management.

“Facilities that provide more training, have rigorous recruitment, selection and performance management practices and developed grievance procedures benefit from staff who have a more positive attitude toward their work and better physical and mental health outcomes.

“Workers at these facilities also reported that the quality of care provided for residents was better than workers at facilities where there were poor human resource management practices and high levels of cost cutting in relation to staffing levels. In particular having fewer residents for each nurse to care for was associated with less frequent medication errors.”

Associate Professor Sargent says current Commonwealth funding arrangements for nursing homes, introduced in 1997, have placed pressure on operators to cut costs.

“The rapidly-ageing population in Australia is placing an unprecedented strain on aged-care provision and it seems likely this pressure will continue in coming years,” she says.

“This pressure is likely to further damage the quality of working life for staff and undermine resident care.”

Source: University of Melbourne

“We discovered that people who are able to find meaning and purpose in their work, and can see how they make a difference through that work, are healthier, happier and more productive employees,” said Val Kinjerski, a University of Alberta Ph.D graduate who co-authored the study and now works with organizations to cultivate productive workplaces.

The study focused on two groups of long-term health-care workers from two different care facilities in Canada. One group of 24 employees attended a Spirit at Work one-day workshop, followed by eight weekly booster sessions offered at shift changes.

The workers were led through a variety of exercises designed to help staff create personal action plans to enhance spirit at work. They were asked to consider concepts like the deeper purpose of their work, being of service, appreciation of themselves and others, sense of community and self-care.

The second group of 34 workers was offered no support program.

The result for the intervention group was a 23 percent increase in teamwork, a 10 percent hike in job satisfaction and a 17 percent jump in workplace morale.

In addition, employer costs related to absenteeism were almost $12,000 less for the five months following the workshop than for the same period in the previous year. The employees also showed an increased interest in and focus on their patients, Kinjerski said.

“They really had a sense of what they were there to do, to be of service to their clients. This notion of being of service is important in all work, but in the field of long-term health care, it is of utmost importance.”

Ultimately, the findings will aid employers in retaining and fostering a happier, more motivated workforce, said Berna Skrypnek, a human ecology professor at the U of A and co-author of the study.

“This has become a leading concern in the long-term health-care field and for that matter, in any field, as labor markets become tighter and employees are demanding meaning and fulfillment from their work.”

The results were published recently in the Journal of Gerontological Nursing.

Source: University of Alberta

Saint Louis University psychiatrist George Grossberg, M.D., has seen an increase in economy-related anxiety.

“The anxiety and worry are immense. It is affecting millions and millions of people, especially those who were looking forward to a comfortable retirement,” said Grossberg.

Grossberg, who directs Saint Louis University’s geriatric psychiatry program, notes that in many cases, older adults respond well in a crisis, drawing on a lifetime of experience.

For example, after September 11, seniors often had a less impulsive, more measured response than did younger people. In today’s economic crisis, however, older adults have the most to lose financially and a sense of what a true economic depression can look like.

Retirees who have planned to rely on investments are hit hardest by financial downturns, but they may also have less obvious reasons for their fears. For some, the worry extends beyond retirement funds to a general and sometimes intangible sense of unease.

“I’ve had patients who are themselves financially secure talk about their anxiety for society as a whole or their worry that there may be unprecedented problems, like civil unrest,” said Grossberg.

The constant drumbeat of bad economic news and promises of worse to come can be stressful for everyone. For those who are suffering because of economy-related stress, Grossberg offers the following pieces of advice:

• Do a reality check: Take a breath and look at the facts. Don’t let speculation about the future run wild. Most over-the-top grim predictions won’t come to pass.
• Don’t act impulsively: Be careful that you don’t make poor decisions in a moment of panic. Grossberg gives the example of one patient who sold off the bulk of his investments while the market was low, fearful that he was losing his retirement savings. Discuss what you plan to do with someone else before you make a rash decision.
• Count your blessings: Take time to think about the things for which you’re grateful. Whether it’s your health, your family, or $1.49/gallon gas, being thankful is a healthy reminder of what’s good in your life.
• Take care of your health: Exercise, eat right, get enough sleep, and don’t put off preventive doctor visits. Staying healthy will help you to deal with financial issues and other stressful problems, and exercise has benefits for mood.
• Get help: If you feel overwhelmed, anxious, or depressed, seek help from a doctor.

Source: Saint Louis University Medical Center

Despite the substantial body of evidence demonstrating a strong link between depression and cardiovascular disease, the explanation for this association remains unclear, according to background information in the article.

“Understanding how depression leads to cardiovascular events is necessary for developing interventions to decrease the excess cardiovascular morbidity [illness] and mortality [death] associated with depression,” the authors write.

Mary A. Whooley, M.D., of the VA Medical Center, San Francisco, and colleagues conducted a study to determine why depressive symptoms are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events.

The study included 1,017 outpatients with stable coronary heart disease who were followed for an average of 4.8 years.

Symptoms of depression were measured with a questionnaire, and various models were used to evaluate the extent to which the association of depressive symptoms with subsequent cardiovascular events (heart failure, heart attack, stroke, transient ischemic attack [a temporary cessation or reduction of blood supply to part of the brain], or death) were explained by disease severity at the beginning of the study and potential biological or behavioral factors.

The researchers found that participants with depressive symptoms had a 50 percent greater risk of cardiovascular events: the age-adjusted annual rate of cardiovascular events was 10.0 percent among the 199 participants with depressive symptoms and 6.7 percent among the 818 participants without depressive symptoms.

Adjustment for physical activity was associated with a reduction in the strength of association between depressive symptoms and cardiovascular events.

When adjusted for other existing conditions and cardiac disease severity, depressive symptoms remained associated with a 31 percent higher rate of cardiovascular events. After further adjustment for certain health behaviors, including physical inactivity, there was no longer a significant association between depressive symptoms and cardiovascular events.

Physical inactivity was associated with a 44 percent greater rate of cardiovascular events, after adjusting for various factors.

The researchers note that patients with depressive symptoms are less likely to adhere to dietary, exercise, and medication recommendations, and poor health behaviors can lead to cardiovascular events.

“These findings raise the hypothesis that the increased risk of cardiovascular events associated with depression could potentially be preventable with behavior modification, especially exercise.

“Given the relatively modest effects of traditional therapies on depressive symptoms in patients with heart disease, there is increasing urgency to identify interventions that not only reduce depressive symptoms but also directly target the mechanisms by which depression leads to cardiovascular events.”

The new study is published in the November 26 issue of JAMA.

Source: JAMA and Archives Journals

Kent State University’s Dr. Steven Toepfer, an assistant professor of family and consumer studies says that expressive writing is something that has been available to mankind since ink first appeared in Egypt more than 4,000 years ago.

“Everyone is pursuing the American dream. We are wealthier than previous generations, consuming more and experiencing more, but yet so many of us are so unhappy,” Toepfer says.

“The question of ‘is there something simple we can do to be happier?’ is one that I have been thinking about for many years and one that has interested people for much longer.”

With that question in mind, Toepfer enlisted students from six courses to explore the effects of writing letters of gratitude to people who had positively impacted the students’ lives.

Over the course of a six-week period, students wrote one letter every two weeks with the simple ground rules that it had to be positively expressive, required some insight and reflection, were nontrivial and contained a high level of appreciation or gratitude.

After each letter, students completed a survey to gauge their moods, satisfaction with life and feelings of gratitude and happiness.

“I saw their happiness increase after each letter, meaning the more they wrote, the better they felt,” says Toepfer, who also witnessed improvement in participants’ life satisfaction and gratitude throughout the study.

“The most powerful thing in our lives is our social network. It doesn’t have to be large, and you don’t always need to be the life of the party, but just having one or two significant connections in your life has shown to have terrific psychological and physical benefits.”

In all, 75 percent of the students said they planned to continue to write letters of gratitude even when the course was over.

Studies demonstrate, according to Toepfer, that practicing expressive writing is often associated with fewer health problems, decreased depression, an improved immune system and improved grades.

“We are all walking around with an amazing resource: gratitude,” says Toepfer.

“It helps us express and enjoy, appreciate, be thankful and satisfied with a little effort. We all have it, and we need to use it to improve our quality of life.”

Source: Kent State University

But a researcher at Kansas State University has found that simply providing programs might not be enough to maintain a supreme equilibrium.

Satoris Culbertson, assistant professor of psychology at K-State, and colleagues have been studying how soldiers’ perceptions of a family-friendly environment relates to their physical fitness, confidence in task performance and intentions to remain in the military.

“Given the especially difficult circumstances surrounding military obligations for U.S. soldiers — for example, an increased threat of deployment due to the current wartime context — a better understanding of how family-friendly perceptions can benefit soldiers is increasingly important,” Culbertson said.

Culbertson and colleagues examined survey data and performance measures of 230 U.S. Army personnel who were stationed in Europe in units with high deployment loads in 2001.

Work environments are considered family-friendly when they help employees manage family time and responsibilities, Culbertson said, adding that the U.S. military has policies in place like on-site educational classes and support groups for family members to create this ideal environment.

“The issue we were concerned about was not merely the availability of such programs, but the perceptions of the workplace as being family-friendly,” Culbertson said.

“Perceptions of a family-friendly organization can differ among employees because much of the perceptions are formed through policies, culture of the organization, and the attitudes and behaviors of the most direct supervisor or work group.”

Some military personnel might not perceive the environment to be family-friendly if they have a superior or peer who is unsupportive or disparages them for taking advantage of a particular policy, Culbertson said.

The study’s results indicated that a perceived family-friendly environment benefited both the individual and the organization. It increased the individuals’ intent to remain in the military once they completed their obligation, and it increased the soldiers’ feelings of their unit’s capability of successful performance.

To better create a family-friendly culture, Culbertson concludes that the military’s local leadership needs to foster and support the policies.

Culbertson collaborated on the project with Ann Huffman, assistant professor of psychology at Northern Arizona University, and Col. Carl Castro, chief of military psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

“Family-Friendly Environments and U.S. Army Soldier Performance and Work Outcomes” was published in the October 2008 issue of Military Psychology and details the researchers’ findings.

Culbertson has performed numerous studies focusing on individuals’ work-life conflicts. She said studies show that individuals who report higher levels of work-life conflict also report lower levels of general well-being, lower levels of job satisfaction, higher levels of burnout, more alcohol use and lower levels of performance.

They also are more likely to leave an organization.

“Ideally, we can balance these responsibilities so that we are effective in each of these roles,” Culbertson said. “Or, even better, we can somehow make the participation in one role benefit another role.”

Source: Kansas State University

In this study, University of Michigan researchers found older people who spent at least 14 hours a week taking care of a disabled spouse lived longer than others.

“These findings suggest that caregivers may actually benefit from providing care under some circumstances,” said U-M researcher Stephanie Brown, lead author of the study report.

“Previous studies have documented negative health effects of caregiving. But the current results show that it is time to disentangle the presumed stress of providing help from the stress of witnessing a loved one suffer.”

Brown is an assistant professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School and a faculty associate at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). She is also affiliated with the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Hospital.

For the study, Brown and colleagues reviewed seven years of data from the U-M Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative sample of Americans age 70 and older. The analysis focused on 1,688 couples, all of whom lived on their own.

At the start of the study in 1993, both members of each couple reported how much help they received from their spouse with a long list of everyday activities. These included eating, dressing and bathing, preparing meals, managing money and taking medications.

The vast majority—approximately 81 percent—said they received no help at all from their spouse. Another nine percent reported getting less than 14 hours of help a week, and the remaining ten percent reported getting 14 hours of help or more each week.

Over the course of the study, 909 people died—about 27 percent of the study population. After controlling for health, age, race, gender, education, employment status and net worth, Brown and colleagues found that the individuals who provided at least 14 hours of care a week to their spouses were significantly less likely to have died during the study period than those who provided no spousal care.

The results of this study add to a growing literature on the positive, beneficial health effects of caregiving, helping and altruism, according to Brown. Her own earlier work has shown that providing social support to friends, relatives and neighbors has a beneficial impact on mortality and on coping with spousal loss.

Brown has a theory about why this is the case. Rather than assuming that humans are selfish and necessarily act only on the basis of rational self-interest, she believes that strong evolutionary forces favor altruistic motivation when individuals are interdependent.

“There is growing recognition that economic decisions may be influenced by complex motivations, not limited to self-interest,” she said.

“We don’t know yet exactly how caregiving motivation and behavior might influence health, but it could be that helping another person—especially someone you love—relieves some of the harmful stress effects of seeing that person suffer.”

With support from the National Science Foundation, Brown will examine how altruistic, helpful behavior, including caregiving, enhances well-being. Starting in 2009, this research will focus on the neuro-affective mechanisms of helping behavior.

The report will be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Source: University of Michigan

Psychological control did not affect the psychological well-being of boys.

Jelani Mandara and Crysta L. Pikes examined a sample of 152 African-American students in the ninth through twelfth grades at a high school in a large Midwestern city.

The sample consisted of 102 females and 50 males. Researchers assessed the degree to which maternal psychological control had an effect on depressive symptoms.

Mandara and Pikes suggested that, “The key for practitioners will be to impress upon parents the need to find a balance between psychological autonomy and behavioral regulation at each stage of their children’s development.”

Source: Blackwell Publishing

In the first published study on the topic, scientists looked at 208 typically sedentary 7- to 11-year-olds who participated in a 10-15 week after-school aerobic exercise program or maintained their usual inactive routine.

“Exercise had a significant impact on anger expression in children,” said Dr. Catherine Davis, clinical health psychologist in the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine.

“This finding indicates that aerobic exercise may be an effective strategy to help overweight kids reduce anger expression and aggressive behavior.”

The finding fits with evidence that exercise reduces depression and anxiety in children and with what’s considered common knowledge that exercise helps adults manage anger, she said.

It also gives parents and other caregivers another reason to get and keep children moving.

“I think it’s reasonable to encourage children to exercise for a lot of good reasons,” said Dr. Davis whose research on overweight children has shown regular physical activity not only reduces fatness but improves cognition and reduces insulin resistance – which can lead to diabetes.

“I think if teachers could see that exercise helps kids control their behavior and get along, they would be the top proponents of physical activity for kids,” said Dr. Davis, noting that other studies suggests overweight children are more likely to be bullies and to be bullied.

High levels of anger and hostility have been associated with delinquency in children, cardiovascular disease in adults and metabolic syndrome - which can lead to heart attack, stroke and diabetes - in adolescents.

The new finding, published in the November issue of Pediatric Exercise Science, appears to apply to overweight children generally, regardless of factors such as race, gender, socioeconomic status or even fitness or fatness levels, the researchers wrote.

In fact, even though all participants in the exercise portion lost a significant amount of weight, they remained overweight at the study’s conclusion.

With help from a five-year $3.6 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Dr. Davis already is looking to see if the finding holds in a similar group of children, who are part of a study on the impact of exercise on cognition. The goal is to determine if it was the exercise or participation in an after-school program that made the difference.

Extra attention from adults and time away from usual routines that could include disagreements with siblings and watching violence on television definitely could have a psychological impact.

“With a psychological outcome like cognition or anger control, positive interaction with adults can make a big difference,” Dr. Davis said.

In the published study, only the exercising children came to MCG’s Georgia Prevention Institute after school. In the new study, both groups are coming to the institute, with non-exercisers enjoying arts, crafts and games.

“We are trying to make it so the only difference is exercise,” said Dr. Davis.

Source: Medical College of Georgia