Subjective Anxiety Research Articles

Physiological and Psychological Effects of Medically Supervised Fasting in Young Female Adults: An Observational Study.

Background Large-scale empirical and observational studies confirm the safety and efficacy of short-term intermittent fasting; however, prolonged fasting (fasting for more than two days or more) is not well studied. This study investigated the safety, physiological, and psychological effects of a medically supervised fasting (MSF) regimen on healthy volunteers. Methods In this observational study, 117 female participants with an average age of 21.02 (± 1.45) years underwent 10 days of medically supervised fasting. Daily symptom scores and 24-hour food recalls were collected, along with serum levels of vitamin D and calcium, a complete blood count, anthropometric measurements, quality of life (QoL), and subjective mood, anxiety, and depression scores, at the baseline and at the end of fasting. Results Compared to baseline, significant improvements were observed in vitamin D levels (z = -8.79, p = 0.000), calcium levels (z = -4.08, p = 0.000), red blood cell count (z = -4.61, p = 0.000), and hemoglobin levels (z = -5.57, p = 0.00). Improvements were observed in physical QOL (t (116) = -4.51, p = 0.000); psychological QOL (t (116) = -4.70, p = 0.000); and social QOL (t (116) = -2.68, p = 0.008). We also observed significant reductions inbody weight (55.83 (±11.38), 52.99 (±10.94); p = 0.00) and other anthropometric measures.More than 80% (n = 94) experienced at least one symptom associated with fasting. The symptoms associated with fasting changed significantly (p<0.05), with most symptoms peaking from day 3 to day 7 of fasting with remission from day 8 onwards. Conclusion Our findings suggest that MSF is associated with significant improvements in physiological and psychological variables. The symptoms associated with MSF are to be considered in clinical decision-making, and follow-up of patients on fasting therapy, particularly during the peaking of symptoms, may be warranted.

Self-Efficacy and the Digit Ratio in a Group of Sports University Students.

Self-efficacy is one's awareness of being able to cope optimally with different situations. Perceived self-efficacy is a belief that closely involves emotional and personological functioning. In fact, when one perceives oneself as capable, the likelihood of success increases significantly. The aim of this research was to verify a possible correlation between self-efficacy and the Digit Ratio (2D:4D), referred to as prenatal androgen levels, and whether these correlate with some psychological variables, considering possible gender differences. This study involved 56 sports university students, whose 2D:4D ratio was calculated. Moreover, self-assessment questionnaires: the Self-efficacy Scale (SES), the Big Five Questionnaire-2 (BFQ-2), the Profile of Mood State (POMS), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y (STAI-Y) and the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) were administered. The data show that the perceived levels of self-efficacy seem to be influenced by an innate predisposition linked to prenatal androgen values to which the subjects were exposed during uterine life (2D:4D). This negative correlation indicates that the higher the value of the digit ratio, the more likely it is that the level of perceived self-efficacy will be lower. Finally, the degree of perceived self-efficacy also seems to depend on the levels of subjective anxiety, understood both as a personological disposition and a contingent condition, and the latter also seems to be influenced by prenatal androgen levels, particularly in women.

Positive future thinking without task-relevance increases anxiety and frontal stress regulation

Negative anticipatory biases can affect the way we interpret and subjectively experience events. Through its role in emotion regulation, positive future thinking may provide an accessible way to attenuate these biases. However, it is unclear whether positive future thinking works ubiquitously, independent of contextual relevance. Here, we used a positive future thinking intervention (task-relevant; task-irrelevant and control condition) prior to a social stress task to adapt the way this task was experienced. We assessed subjective and objective stress measures and also recorded resting state electroencephalography (EEG) to assess intervention related differences in the level of frontal delta-beta coupling, which is considered a neurobiological substrate of stress regulation. Results show that the intervention reduced subjective stress and anxiety, and increased social fixation behavior and task performance, but only if future thinking was task-relevant. Paradoxically, task-irrelevant positive future thoughts enhanced negative perceptual biases and stress reactivity. This increase in stress reactivity was corroborated by elevated levels of frontal delta-beta coupling during event anticipation, which suggests an increased demand for stress regulation. Together, these findings show that positive future thinking can mitigate the negative emotional, behavioral and neurobiological consequences of a stressful event, but that it should not be applied indiscriminately.

청소년의 코로나19로 인한 주관적 건강상태가 불안에 미치는 영향

This study aims to analyze the effect of subjective health conditions caused by COVID-19 in adolescents on anxiety and to verify the mediating effects of stress and hand washing. To this end, data from the 17th Youth Health Behavior Survey in 2021 were used, and data from a total of 54,848 teenagers attending the first grade of middle school to the third grade of high school were analyzed. Data analysis was correlated with descriptive statistical analysis with SPSS 26.0, and mediated effect analysis was conducted using Process Macro 4.0. As a result of verifying the mediating effect of stress and hand washing in the relationship between adolescents' subjective health status and anxiety, subjective health status had a significant effect on anxiety, and stress and hand washing also had a significant mediating effect on anxiety. Based on this, it should contribute to the development of programs on hand washing, stress management, and anxiety intervention according to subjective health conditions.

Mitochondria-wide association study observed significant interactions of mitochondrial respiratory and the inflammatory in the development of anxiety and depression

The aim of this study was to investigate the possible interaction of mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammatory cytokines in the risk of anxiety and depression. We utilized the UK Biobank for the sample of this study. A mitochondria-wide association(MiWAS) and interaction analysis was performed to investigate the interaction effects of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)×C-reactive protein (CRP) on the risks of self-reported anxiety (N = 72,476), general anxiety disorder (GAD-7) scores (N = 80,853), self-reported depression (N = 80,778), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scores (N = 80,520) in total samples, females and males, respectively, adjusting for sex, age, Townsend deprivation index (TDI), education score, alcohol intake, smoking and 10 principal components. In all, 25 mtSNPs and 10 mtSNPs showed significant level of association with self-reported anxiety and GAD-7 score respectively. A total of seven significant mtDNA × CRP interactions were found for anxiety, such as m.3915G>A(MT-ND1) for self-reported anxiety in total subjects (P = 6.59 × 10−3), m.4561T>C(MT-ND2) (P = 3.04 × 10−3) for GAD-7 score in total subjects. For depression, MiWAS identified 17 significant mtSNPs for self-reported depression and 14 significant mtSNPs for PHQ-9 scores. 17 significant mtDNA associations (2 for self-reported depression and 15 for PHQ-9 score) was identified, such as m.14869G>A(MT-CYB; P = 2.22 × 10−3) associated with self-reported depression and m.4561T>C (MT-ND2; P value = 3.02 × 10−8) associated with PHQ-9 score in all subjects. In addition, 5 common mtDNA shared with anxiety and depression were found in MiWAS, and 4 common mtDNA variants were detected to interact with CRP for anxiety and depression, such as m.9899T>C(MT-CO3). Our study suggests the important interaction effects of mitochondrial function and CRP on the risks of anxiety and depression.

The mediating effect of resilience on anxiety and subjective well-being in occupational population

Objective: To explore the current situation of anxiety, subjective well-being in occupational population and the mediating effect of resilience. Methods: From March 24th to 26th, 2020, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among occupational population aged ≥18 years old using online questionnaires. A total of 2134 valid questionnaires were obtained, with respondents from 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government. Their general demographic data, subjective well-being, anxiety, and resilience were collected. Pearson χ(2) test and Spearson correlation analysis were used for data analysis, and structural equation model was used to explore the mediating effect of resilience on anxiety and subjective well-being. Results: The age of the respondents ranged from 18 to 60 years old, with an average age of (31.19±7.09) years old, including 1075 (50.4%) women and 1059 (49.6%) men. The positive rates of low subjective well-being and anxiety were 46.5% (992/2134) and 28.4% (607/2134), respectively. Anxiety scores were significantly negatively correlated with subjective well-being scores and resilience scores (r(s)=-0.52, -0.41, P<0.05), while resilience was significantly positively correlated with subjective well-being (r(s)=0.32, P<0.05). Structural equation models showed that anxiety had a negative predictive effect on subjective well-being, while resilience not only had a positive predictive effect on subjective well-being, but also played a mediating role between anxiety and subjective well-being, with a mediating effect of 9.9%. Conclusion: The situation of anxiety and well-being in the occupational population is still not optimistic, and resilience has a mediating effect between anxiety and subjective well-being.

Importance of dialogue in psychological counselling to avoid stress anxiety of Generation Z

This article studies the problems of so-called Generation Zers who are currently entering the workforce and most of them are still going to universities. They were born in the digital era and tend to spend their time on the Internet; even they can be considered to be educated or grown-up fuelled with Internet resources. This process has negative consequences on human mental health since Generation Z is isolated from society and are lack of face-to-face communication. This study examines some psychological and educational characteristics of modern students: stress, speaking anxiety in non-native subjects, lack of communication, psychological factors causing depression during the educational process, counselling, psychotherapy, etc. The authors of this study suggest that cognitive behavioral therapy is the best method to clean the mind, improve behavior and learn without anxiety. As a research result, the most important principles of counselling are examined during research, and in the conclusion part, recommendations are made to change teaching methods and the way of communication for Generation Zers since they belong to the digital technology era.

Factors associated with conflict and styles of conflict management among health professionals

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Introduction.&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt; Conflict is a process during which one person consciously and intentionally makes an effort to prevent the other person&amp;amp;rsquo;s efforts, some kind of blockade that will lead to interruption in achieving the goals and interests of the other person. Conflicts in the healthcare team are common and can lead to reduced productivity in the work of healthcare professionals, which can have a negative impact on the care and treatment of patients. &amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Methods. &amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt;This cross-sectional study involved 100 health professionals, nurses and doctors employed in the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of health care. The research was conducted from March to August 2020. A questionnaire on socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, a questionnaire on conflicts of health professionals, and a standardized scale of depression, anxiety and stress with 21 questions (DASS-21) were used to measure the level of subjective depression, anxiety and stress &amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Results.&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt; Seventy-four health workers (74%) had experience of conflict in the workplace, doctors (95%) significantly more often than nurses (58%) (p=0.001). Forty percent of health workers stated that communication problems were the most common cause of conflict. Seventy-nine respondents (79%) chose cooperation and compromise as a style in conflict resolution. Doctors chose cooperation more often (84%) than nurses (74%) and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.048). Subjects who had experience of conflict had significantly higher average values of anxiety (8.01&amp;amp;plusmn;2.12) (p=0.026) and stress (10.32&amp;amp;plusmn;2.91) (p=0.008) compared to subjects who had no experience of conflict (6.13&amp;amp;plusmn;1.91; 6.12&amp;amp;plusmn;2.03). &amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Conclusion.&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt; Doctors were significantly more likely to have conflict situations in the workplace. For conflict resolution doctors were more likely to choose a style of cooperation and compromise than nurses who were more likely to choose a style of conflict avoidance.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;

Acute effects of intravenous DMT in a randomized placebo-controlled study in healthy participants

N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is distinct among classic serotonergic psychedelics because of its short-lasting effects when administered intravenously. Despite growing interest in the experimental and therapeutic use of intravenous DMT, data are lacking on its clinical pharmacology. We conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial in 27 healthy participants to test different intravenous DMT administration regimens: placebo, low infusion (0.6 mg/min), high infusion (1 mg/min), low bolus + low infusion (15 mg + 0.6 mg/min), and high bolus + high infusion (25 mg + 1 mg/min). Study sessions lasted for 5 h and were separated by at least 1 week. Participant’s lifetime use of psychedelics was ≤20 times. Outcome measures included subjective, autonomic, and adverse effects, pharmacokinetics of DMT, and plasma levels of brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) and oxytocin. Low (15 mg) and high (25 mg) DMT bolus doses rapidly induced very intense psychedelic effects that peaked within 2 min. DMT infusions (0.6 or 1 mg/min) without a bolus induced slowly increasing and dose-dependent psychedelic effects that reached plateaus after 30 min. Both bolus doses produced more negative subjective effects and anxiety than infusions. After stopping the infusion, all drug effects rapidly decreased and completely subsided within 15 min, consistent with a short early plasma elimination half-life (t1/2α) of 5.0–5.8 min, followed by longer late elimination (t1/2β = 14–16 min) after 15–20 min. Subjective effects of DMT were stable from 30 to 90 min, despite further increasing plasma concentrations, thus indicating acute tolerance to continuous DMT administration. Intravenous DMT, particularly when administered as an infusion, is a promising tool for the controlled induction of a psychedelic state that can be tailored to the specific needs of patients and therapeutic sessions.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04353024

BDNF and stress/mood-related interactions on emotional disorder symptoms, executive functioning, and deliberate self-harm

Some prior research has suggested that the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene may amplify responses related to life stress (e.g., depression and anxiety) or associated with negative moods (e.g., self-harm and diminished cognitive functioning). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether stress/mood-related associations with depressive and anxiety symptoms, deliberate self-harm, and executive functioning (EF) are moderated by genotypic variations in BDNF rs10835210 (a relatively understudied BDNF polymorphism) in a nonclinical sample. As part of a larger study, European American social drinkers (N = 132; 43.9% female; M age = 26.0, SD = 7.6) were genotyped for BDNF rs10835210 and were administered self-report measures of subjective life stress, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and history of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and behavioral measures of EF and deliberate self-harm. Results indicated that BDNF significantly moderated the life stress associations with depressive symptoms and NSSI, the anxious mood association with EF, and the depressed mood association with deliberate self-harm behavior. Each of these BDNF × stress/mood interactions were characterized by stress/mood associations that were stronger in individuals with the AA genotype (homozygous for the minor allele) than in individuals possessing a genotype that included the major allele (AC or CC). The main limitations of the present study were use of a cross-sectional design, modest sample size, and investigating only one BDNF polymorphism. Despite these limitations and though preliminary, current findings suggest that variations in BDNF may confer vulnerability to stress or mood, which may result in more adverse emotional, cognitive, or behavioral outcomes.

Decision-Making and Risk-Propensity Changes during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown.

The imposition of lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic placed individuals under conditions of environmental stress, threatening individual and collective wellbeing. This study aimed to investigate the temporal effects of isolation and confinement during and after the Italian lockdown on decision-making, risk propensity, and cognitive control processes. The present study covered almost the entire Italian lockdown period (each week from the end of March to mid-May 2020), plus a follow-up measure (September 2020). At each time-point, respondents completed online behavioral tasks, which involved measuring risk-propensity (Balloon Analogue Risk Task), decision-making (Iowa Gambling Task), and cognitive flexibility (Category Switch Task). They also filled in questionnaires regarding subjective stress and anxiety. The main findings showed that the decision-making abilities of the respondents were affected as the confinement progressed. Furthermore, individuals who were more subjectively impacted by the lockdown/isolation experience exhibited impaired decision-making, especially during the lockdown. The results of the study highlight that prolonged confinement may affect human decision making, and help understand individuals' misbehaviors during emergencies and develop effective countermeasures aimed at reducing the burden of the healthcare system.

The effect of emotional freedom technique and music applied to pregnant women who experienced prenatal loss on psychological growth, well-being, and cortisol level: A randomized controlled trial

IntroductionResearch has shown that application of emotional freedom technique and music ensures psychological growth, increases well-being, and decreases cortisol level. PurposeIn the study, it was aimed to determine the effect of EFT and music applied to pregnant women who had experienced prenatal loss on their psychological growth, well-being, and cortisol level. MethodsThe study was conducted as a randomized controlled trial in a city hospital in eastern Türkiye with 159 pregnant women, 53 of whom were in the EFT, 53 in the music group, and 53 in the control group. The study data were collected through Subjective Units of Disturbance Scale (SUDS), Subjective Units of Experience (SUE) Scale, Post Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), and WHO-5 Well-Being Index, and saliva samples were taken for cortisol evaluation. EFT was applied to the women two times every other week; the women in the music group listened to music two times every other week. Throughout the week following the first intervention, the women continued the interventions at home. ResultsIt was determined that EFT and music significantly decreased the participants' subjective anxiety and salivary cortisol median scores, the lowest anxiety was in the EFT group, and PTGI and WHO-5 Well-Being Index mean scores increased (p < 0.005). Further analyses showed that EFT was more effective in terms of increasing well-being than music (p < 0.001; a > b > c). It was determined that the anxiety levels and salivary cortisol median values of the control group were statistically significantly higher compared to the EFT and music groups (p < 0.001). ConclusionIt was found that EFT and music applied to the women who had experienced prenatal loss decreased anxiety, ensured psychological growth, improved well-being, and decreased salivary cortisol level.

Feasibility randomised controlled trial of online group Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Functional Cognitive Disorder (ACT4FCD)

IntroductionFunctional cognitive disorder (FCD) is seen increasingly in clinics commissioned to assess cognitive disorders. Patients report frequent cognitive, especially memory, failures. The diagnosis can be made clinically, and unnecessary investigations...

THE EFFICACY OF LYSERGIC ACID DIETHYLAMIDE FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSISTED THERAPY: SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND METAANALYSIS OF RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS

Background:Classical psychedelics are a group of drugs which act as agonists on the serotonin-2A (5-HT2A) receptor. Evidence suggests they may have a uniquely rapid and enduring positive effect on mood. However, marked heterogeneity between methodological designs in this emerging field remains a significant concern. Aims:To determine how differences in the type of psychedelic agent used and the number of dosing sessions administered affect subjects depression and anxiety outcomes and adverse drug reactions (ADR). Methods:This review collected and screened 1591 records from the MEDLINE and Web of Science databases for clinical trials reporting objective data on mood for subjects with a known anxiety or depression. Results:After screening, nine clinical trials met inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis of these studies showed significant, large positive effect sizes for measures of anxiety (Cohens d = 1.26) and depression (Cohens d = 1.38) overall. These positive effects were also significant at acute (⩽1 week) and extended (&gt;1 week) time points. No significant differences were observed between trials using different psychedelic agents (psilocybin, ayahuasca or lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)), however, a significant difference was observed in favour of trials with multiple dosing sessions. No serious ADR were reported. Conclusion:Psilocybin, ayahuasca and LSD all appear to be effective and relatively safe agents capable of producing rapid and sustained improvements in anxiety and depression. Moreover, the findings of the present analysis suggest that they may show a greater efficacy when given to patients over multiple sessions as compared to the more common single session used in many of the existing trials.

Mindfulness for voices: An experimental analogue study of the effect of manipulating response style to simulated voices in a non-clinical population.

We aimed to investigate the effects of directly manipulating response style to simulated voice hearing on emotional and cognitive outcomes in a non-clinical population. A between-subjects design with one independent variable, response style (with two levels: mindful acceptance vs attentional avoidance). The dependent variables were subjective distress and anxiety (primary outcomes) and performance on a sustained attention task (secondary outcomes). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two response styles (mindful acceptance vs. attentional avoidance). They completed a computerised attention task (continuous performance task) whilst listening to a simulation of voice hearing. Participants rated their experience of anxiety and distress before and after completing the sustained attention task which was used to measure their accuracy and response times. One hundred and one participants took part (mindful acceptance (n = 54); attentional avoidance (n = 47)). There were no statistically significant group differences on post-test distress and anxiety scores, correct response rate or response times on the computerised attention task. Participants reported a range of different response styles along the spectrum of avoidance to acceptance, but this had no association with their assigned experimental condition. Adherence to task instructions was therefore low. We are unable to conclude from this study whether experimentally inducing people to respond to voices under cognitively demanding conditions in an avoidant or accepting way has an impact on their emotional or cognitive outcomes. Further research should focus on the development of more robust and reliable procedures for inducing differences in response style under experimental conditions.

THE EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE ON ANXIETY LEVELS OF EMPLOYEES

The norms and attitudes within the organizational culture do not comply with the interests and expectations of the members of the organization so that can cause anxiety. This study aimed to explore the effect of between organizational culture on anxiety levels of employees. The research sample included 243 respondents from 10 randomly selected companies that agreed to participate in the research. Beck Anxiety Scale and O'Reilly et al.’s Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) was used for measuring organizational culture and anxiety level. The exploratory factor analysis identified seven components of organizational culture namely aggressive, stable, outcome-oriented, innovative, detail-oriented, team-oriented, and people-oriented. And four components of anxiety levels of employees namely general anxiety, acute anxiety and trauma, autonomic anxiety, and subjective anxiety. There was an only significant relationship between the organizational culture and the subjective anxiety which is the sub-dimension of the anxiety levels of employees. The main findings of this study, organizational culture does not affect the anxiety levels of employees. The side findings of this study, there was no statistically significant difference anxiety levels of employees by gender. I suggest that future researchers carry out similar studies using a larger and different sector sample.

Pilot Tailored Lighting Intervention on Sleep Disturbances in Parkinson disease (P7-11.014)

<h3>Objective:</h3> To assess the effects of a short-term tailored lighting intervention therapy (TLI) on sleep disturbances in Parkinson disease (PD). <h3>Background:</h3> Sleep disturbances are a common non-motor symptom in PD, adversely affecting quality of life, mood and cognition. They suggest underlying disruptions in circadian rhythm. Based on our preliminary studies showing the positive impacts of TLI on sleep, mood and behavior in Alzheimer’s disease, we hypothesize that TLI can improve objective sleep measures in PD. <h3>Design/Methods:</h3> Baseline sleep quality and rest activity were measured with 1-week wrist actigraphy. Light exposure level was measured with a daysimeter. TLI was delivered over a 4-week period, administered for 2 hours every morning via table/floor lamps installed in the home or lighting glasses. Post-intervention actigraph and daysimeter data were collected during the last week of the 4-week intervention. Pre- and post-intervention measures were compared using paired t-tests. <h3>Results:</h3> In 20 participants (65% women, mean age 73.8 years [SD 8.6], disease duration 9.4 years [7.4]), average time of falling asleep was 19 minutes earlier (p=0.18) with TLI. Sleep time (excluding nocturnal wake after sleep onset) increased significantly by 20 minutes (p=0.049) from 381.11 to 401.36 minutes. Overall sleep duration also increased by 29 minutes but this did not reach significance (p=0.078). Sleep efficiency in this PD cohort was 85% both pre- and post-intervention. <h3>Conclusions:</h3> This pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of conducting an at home, short-term tailored lighting intervention therapy for participants with PD. In this small group, several sleep measures were improved, despite starting with an overall baseline of good sleep efficiency. Additional analyses are underway to determine effects of TLI on subjective sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, depression, anxiety and fatigue. Follow up studies in a larger cohort are warranted to assess for effects of TLI in participants with poor baseline sleep, as well as longer intervention durations. <b>Disclosure:</b> Dr. Yoo has received research support from Edmond J Safra Foundation. Roberto Ortega has nothing to disclose. The institution of Ms. Raymond has received research support from NIH. Ms. Gerber has nothing to disclose. Ms. Markgraf has nothing to disclose. Ms. Liang has nothing to disclose. Ms. Zians has nothing to disclose. Dr. Wise has nothing to disclose. Ms. Rawal has nothing to disclose. Ms. Plitnick has nothing to disclose. Ms. Brons has nothing to disclose. The institution of Dr. Bressman has received research support from Michael J Fox Foundation . The institution of Dr. Bressman has received research support from NIH . The institution of Dr. Figueiro has received research support from NIH. The institution of Dr. Figueiro has received research support from EU. The institution of Dr. Figueiro has received research support from McClung Foundation. The institution of Dr. Saunders-Pullman has received research support from NIH, Bigglesworth Family Foundation, Empire Clinical Research Investigatory Program.

Actigraphic Correlates of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Adults with Focal Epilepsy.

Disability in patients with epilepsy (PWE) is multifactorial: beyond seizure frequency/severity, PWE are prone to a range of neuropsychiatric, cognitive, and somatic comorbidities that significantly impact quality of life. Here, we explored how variations in seizure severity and the burden of self-reported somatic/neuropsychiatric symptoms correlate with disruptions to 24h activity patterns (rest-activity rhythms, RARs), determined through wrist accelerometry/actigraphy. Multiday wrist-actigraphy recordings were obtained from 59 adult patients with focal epilepsy (44% male, ages 18-72), who contemporaneously responded to validated psychometric instruments to measure anxiety, depression, sleepiness, and somatic symptoms. We conducted a similar in silico psychometric-actigraphic correlation in a publicly available dataset of 1747 Hispanic subjects (35% male, ages 18-65) from the Study of Latinos (SOL) Sueño Ancillary Study. RARs were analyzed via a sigmoidally-transformed cosine model (quantifying amplitude, steepness, acrophase and robustness) and non-parametric measures to estimate RAR stability, fragmentation, and sleep. Compared with matched SOL subjects, RARs from PWE subjects featured a significantly lower amplitude, a wider rest phase and significantly more total daily sleep. Within PWE, similar RAR distortions were associated with seizure intractability and/or anticonvulsant polytherapy, whereas high anxiety, depression, and somatic symptom scores were associated with lower RAR robustness and acrophase delay. We applied the SOL dataset to train logistic regression models to dichotomously classify subjective anxiety, depression and sleepiness symptoms using demographic and RAR parameters. When tested on PWE, these models predicted prevalent anxiety and depression symptom burden (accuracy ~70%) but failed to predict subjective sleepiness. Together, these results demonstrate that RAR features may encode prevalent depression and anxiety symptoms in patients with focal epilepsy, potentially offering wearable-derived endpoints to adjunct clinical care and drug/device trials. With larger PWE-specific actigraphic-psychometric datasets, we may identify RAR signatures that may more precisely correlate with varying seizure frequency, the burden of anticonvulsant therapy and prevalent mood/anxiety symptoms.

Effect of Six Eye Exercises Protocol on Oculomotor Control, Anxiety and Emotional Intelligence in Hypertensive Subjects - A Randomized Clinical Trial

Hypertension has a larger impact on the various systems of the body along with poor quality of life. After a span of almost one year, alteration in the oculomotor movements can be seen which is a lesser known fact . Research suggests that there is correlation of between oculomotor movements which is going to cause anxiety prevailing emotional distress. This association is linked with elevation of BP , hampering daily activities as well as work calibre. To address all these issues, currently there are various interventions for hypertensive patients at surgical, medical and advanced level but there is a lack of study on the community level. This highlights the need for a patient friendly approach which will focus on these specific concerns .the need of this study is to create a community friendly intervention for hypertensive patients whose oculomotor movements are affected due to which anxiety and emotional intelligence may get impaired. This study will give a secondary pathway to manage all these symptoms in a very convenient way . Six Eye Exercise protocol being a completely patient friendly protocol will not only allow the patient to perform it with ease but will also create a community friendly approach of treating the above issues.

Depression and Anxiety among Acne and Melasma Patients

Objective: To determine the frequency of depression and anxiety in acne and melasma patients presented at dermatology OPD of a tertiary care Hospital. Material and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the dermatology OPD of Sir Syed Hospital Qayoomabad. Patients with acne or melasma, aged 18 years or above, both gender, patients who have not received treatment for depression or anxiety in the last 3 months and Patients who are willing to complete the study questionnaire honestly and to the best of their ability were included. Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS) was used to assess the anxiety and depression in study subjects All the data was recorded in self-made proforma and analysis was done by using SPSS version 26. Results: A total of 93 individuals were studied, regarding anxiety and depression due to acne and melasma. Mean age of the participants was 31.32+10.45 years. Females were 64.5% and males were 35.5%. 32.3% of the cases had Melasma and remaining 67.7% had acne. 32.3% cases had mild anxiety, 32.3% had moderate anxiety and 6.5% had severe anxiety. According to the depression, 32.3% cases had mild depression, 19.4% had moderate depression and 19.4% cases had severe depression, while 29.0% cases had no depression. Severity of depression and anxiety were statistically insignificant according to gender, marital status, duration of disease and types of skin disorder (p-&gt;0.05). Conclusion: It has been observed that individuals with acne and melasma have a higher likelihood of experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression. The negative impact of these dermatological conditions on an individual's self-esteem and overall well-being can be significant, leading to emotional distress and psychological difficulties. Keywords: Anxiety, Depression, Melasma, Acne