Risk Factors For Anxiety Symptoms Research Articles

Psychiatric sequelae in atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki two decades after the explosions.

Atomic bomb exposure was an extraordinarily stressful event. Although little epidemiological research has been performed on the psychiatric effects of the bombings, many medical descriptions of the survivors suggest that there was an increase of various symptoms that implied autonomic ataxia or neurosis-like disorders. The psychiatric effects of exposure to the atomic bomb explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were assessed in this study. From a self-administered medical questionnaire completed between 1962 and 1965 by 9421 informed and consenting Adult Health Study subjects, some questions congruent with the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for generalized anxiety disorder and somatization disorder were selected and used as indicators of anxiety symptoms and somatization symptoms. The prevalence of psychiatric symptoms in relation to age, sex, city (Hiroshima vs. Nagasaki), acute radiation symptoms, exposure status (in city or not in city), ground distance from hypocenter, disease history, and death of family members were analyzed. A higher prevalence of anxiety symptoms (odds ratio, 1.73) and somatization symptoms (odds ratio, 1.99) was observed in those with acute radiation symptoms than in those without them. The prevalence of anxiety symptoms and somatization symptoms among people who were in the city at the time of the explosion was significantly higher than among those who were not in the city. Among the former, prevalence was lower among proximally exposed people than among distally exposed people. Symptom prevalences were also affected by age, sex, and city. Although disease history such as neurotic disorder and ulcer were risk factors for anxiety symptoms and somatization symptoms, the increased prevalence of anxiety symptoms and somatization symptoms in association with atomic bomb exposure was independent of disease history and the death of family members. The prevalence of anxiety symptoms and somatization symptoms was elevated in atomic bomb survivors even 17-20 years after the bombings had occurred, indicating the long-term nature of the psychiatric effects of the experience. Psychiatric sequelae were independent of physical sequelae.

Social Anxiety and History of Behavioral Inhibition in Young Adults

To evaluate the relationship between the childhood temperament behavioral inhibition (BI) and anxiety symptomology, we investigated differences in retrospective reports of childhood BI among undergraduates reporting one of the following: (a) Social anxiety ( n = 10), (b) generalized anxiety ( n = 13), (c) both social and generalized anxiety ( n = 15), and (d) minimal social and generalized anxiety ( n = 38). Contrary to the hypothesis that BI acts as a nonspecific risk factor for anxiety symptoms, our findings revealed that a history of childhood BI was associated with symptoms of social phobia but not generalized anxiety disorder. Moreover, participants displaying symptoms of both generalized anxiety disorder and social phobia were no more likely to show a childhood history of BI than participants displaying social phobia symptoms alone. These data suggest that a childhood history of BI may be more strongly associated with adult social anxiety than some other types of anxiety pathology.

Dimensions of Perfectionism, Life Stress, and Depressed and Anxious Symptoms: Prospective Support for Diathesis-Stress but not Specific Vulnerability among Male Undergraduates

We investigated important issues relevant to a specific vulnerability, diathesis-stress approach to the relations between perfectionism, life stress, and depressed and anxious symptoms. To address limitations of past work, we used a prospective methodology, and addressed the moderating role of gender and symptom specificity. One hundred seventy-four undergraduates completed questionnaires on self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism, achievement-related and interpersonal life stress, and depressed and anxious symptoms, at two points in time separated by three weeks. Among males but not females, a diathesis-stress, but not specific vulnerability perspective was supported. Specifically, males high in socially prescribed perfectionism experienced increases in depressed symptoms under high but not low life stress, whether the stress was interpersonal or achievement-related in nature. Males high in self-oriented perfectionism were prone to depression increases under high but not low levels of interpersonal, but not achievement-related stress. A general negative events composite interacted with both socially prescribed and self-oriented perfectionism to predict depression increases. There was modest support for our hypothesis that interactions involving socially prescribed perfectionism would predict increases in both depressed and anxious symptoms, whereas those involving self-oriented perfectionism would predict increases in depressed symptoms only.