Individual Stress Level Research Articles

Effects of Shiitake Culinary-Medicinal Mushroom, Lentinus edodes (Agaricomycetes), Bars on Lipid and Antioxidant Profiles in Individuals with Borderline High Cholesterol: A Double-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial.

Shiitake (Lentinus edodes) is a culinary-medicinal mushroom that has low lipid content and is rich in protein, fiber, minerals, vitamins, antioxidant compounds, and β-glucans. We assessed the effects of L. edodes bars on cholesterolemia and oxidative stress levels in individuals with borderline high cholesterol through a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Individuals with borderline high cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, or triglycerides were recruited. Sixty-eight individuals were randomly allocated to group I (placebo; n = 32) or group II (intervention; n = 36). Blood samples were collected at 0, 33, and 66 days, and all individuals received an unidentified opaque envelope containing the bars. Biochemical (triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein, and glucose) and oxidative stress biomarkers (reduced glutathione, catalase, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances) in the blood were assessed. Participants in the intervention group showed a 10% reduction in triglycerides after 66 days of consuming the shiitake bars (P = 0.0352). In oxidative stress biomarkers, L. edodes increased the main endogenous antioxidant reduced glutathione and reduced lipid peroxidation. Exposure to L. edodes triggered dermatitis in 10% of individuals sensitive to the mushroom. In conclusion, L. edodes bars are a nutritious food and a functional health food alternative. This food improves redox status and can be considered as an adjuvant in the prevention of dyslipidemia.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder reinforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic is unquestionably impacting on the mental health of the population worldwide. Fear of contamination can both increase levels of stress in healthy individuals and intensify psychiatric symptoms in patients with pre-existing conditions, especially obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the imminent risk of contamination creates a logical need for self-surveillance and hygiene habits. However, this kind of information can have drastic implications for subjects with OCD, since cognitive distortions and compensatory strategies (cleansing rituals) are no longer irrational or oversized – rather, these ideas become legitimate and socially accepted, generating plausible validation for the intensification of compulsive cleaning rituals. Patients who presented remission of OCD symptoms would be more likely to have a relapse, and subclinical patients may scale up and ultimately be diagnosed with OCD due to the reinforcement of their habits, emotions and thoughts.

COVID-19 and Painful Temporomandibular Disorders: what does the dentist need to know?

ABSTRACT COVID-19 outbreak may lead to major impacts in applied oral sciences. Remarkably, it could be expected that factors associated to pandemic may lead to a greater risk of developing, worsening and perpetuating TMD and its associated risk factors. This non systematic literature review aims to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic can influence the emergence, maintenance or worsening of TMD worldwide. During epidemics: the number of people whose mental health is affected tends to be greater than the number affected by the infection, and fear increases anxiety and stress levels in healthy individuals; chronic pain patients probably not receipt important treatments; overuse of medications becomes frequent; there are manifestation of unconscious oral parafunctional habits and poor sleep quality. All these facts represent risk factors common to TMD. Dentists should be aware of these issues and adapt their practices to properly diagnose and treat these patients within a multifactorial approach, increasing the quality of life of these individuals.

Intra-specific variability in deep water extraction between trees growing on a Mediterranean karst

Plant transpiration is a major component of water fluxes in the critical zone, which needs to be better characterized to improve our ability to understand and model the hydrological cycle. In water-limited ecosystems such as those encountered on karst environments, climate-induced changes in transpiration are expected to be strongly influenced by the ability of the vegetation cover to resist or adapt to drought. However, because of the high heterogeneity of karst environments, the amount of water available for trees can change within a stand, which may lead to significant differences in drought vulnerability resistance between trees of the same species. So far it is not known if soil and subsoil environment influence the magnitude of deep water extraction, at the intra-specific scale. Here, we investigate the variability in deep water extraction for six individual Quercus ilex trees growing on a karst substrate in a Mediterranean forest. We combined three approaches: (i) electrical resistivity tomography to determine the variability of soil/subsoil characteristics, (ii) isotope tracing to determine the origin of water transpired by plants, and (iii) predawn and midday leaf water potential (Ψ) to assess the trees’ water stress and transpiration regulation. Along the summer season, deep water extraction increased with drought intensity. Deep water use varies between individuals and according to drought intensity. At moderate water stress levels, we found no significant relationship between the origin of xylem water and soil/subsoil characteristics or individual stress level. However, at the peak of the drought (average predawnΨ < −2MPa), individuals that had the least total available water in soil/subsoil (0–2 m) relied more on deep water and were also subject to less water stress. These results suggest that trees with less favorable soil/subsoil conditions (i.e. low water retention capacity) in the near surface (0–2 m) adapt their root systems to exploit deep water reserves more intensively so as to enhance their drought tolerance, while trees with more favorable surface conditions exhibit greater water stress and may be more vulnerable to extreme droughts because of a lower root development in deeper horizons.

Real-Life Stress Level Monitoring Using Smart Bands in the Light of Contextual Information

An automatic stress detection system that uses unobtrusive smart bands will contribute to human health and well-being by alleviating the effects of high stress levels. However, there are a number of challenges for detecting stress in unrestricted daily life which results in lower performances of such systems when compared to semi-restricted and laboratory environment studies. The addition of contextual information such as physical activity level, activity type and weather to the physiological signals can improve the classification accuracies of these systems. We developed an automatic stress detection system that employs smart bands for physiological data collection. In this study, we monitored the stress levels of 16 participants of an EU project training every day throughout the eight days long event by using our system. We collected 1440 hours of physiological data and 2780 self-report questions from the participants who are from diverse countries. The project midterm presentations (see Figure 3) in front of a jury at the end of the event were the source of significant real stress. Different types of contextual information, along with the physiological data, were recorded to determine the perceived stress levels of individuals. We further analyze the physiological signals in this event to infer long term perceived stress levels which we obtained from baseline PSS-14 questionnaires. Session-based, daily and long-term perceived stress levels could be identified by using the proposed system successfully.

Classification of Individuals Based on Autonomic Response to Virtual Gaming

Modern games consists of digital gaming consoles that involves interaction with a user and has an interface to generate visual feedback through 2D/3D monitor. These games have several psychological side effects like loss of spatial awareness, back pains, insomnia, addiction, aggression, stress, and hypertension. Virtual reality (VR) Gaming is one of the most emerging and novel technologies in the field of entertainment. Evaluation of this new technology has become important in order to analyze the effects of its predecessors (2D and 3D gaming). The main focus of this paper is on detection of stress levels in individuals due to VR gaming and classify them depending on their sympathetic and parasympathetic dominance. This is done through acquisition of electrocardiogram (ECG) and photo plethysmograph signals (PPG) signals and extracting their time domain and frequency domain features before, during and after gaming (Fatma Uysal and Mahmut Tokmakçi, 2018. Evaluation of stress parameters based on heart rate variability measurement. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey. fatmauysal@erciyes.edu.tr, tokmakci@erciyes.edu.tr., da Silva1, A.G.C.B., Arauj, D.N., et al, 2018. Increase in perceived stress is correlated to lower heart rate variability in healthy young subjects. Departamento de Fisioterapia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. s/n., 81531–980, Curitiba, Parana, Brazil. E-mail: fernandoaldias@gmail.com.). The physiological signal variation is analyzed by performing Heart Rate Variability (HRV) analysis over ECG signals which is one of the fast emerging methods in non-invasive research and clinical tools for assessing autonomic nervous system function (Juan Sztajzel, 2004. Heart rate variability: Aa non-invasive electrocardiographic method to measure the autonomic nervous system. Cardiology Center and Medical Policlinics, University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland, SWISS MED WKLY 2004;134:514–522. www.smw.ch). Pulse-transmissiontime-variability (PTTV), which is extracted, has high coherence with heart rate variability and is also used as an objective measure of stress. In this paper we obtain the response of an individual during VR gaming and correlate them with the HRV/PTT parameters. The game chosen for the data acquisition was ‘VR city view rope crossing-360 android VR,’ during which data recording is done. It was found that there was a quantitative increase in physiological stress when individuals were exposed to virtual high heights in comparison with time relative to unaltered viewing. Mean Heart rate showed a significant increase during gaming for both boys and girls which indicates that the body is under the influence of a sympathetic activity like a physical exercise.

Göreli Yoksunluk ve Algılanan Stres Arasındaki İlişkinin İncelenmesi: Akademisyenler Üzerine Bir İnceleme (An Investigation of The Relationship Between Relative Deprivation and Perceived Stress: A Review on Academicians)

Purpose – Factors such as workload, insufficient wages, insufficient physical working conditions, heavy course loads, the lack of sufficient financial resources and regulations to encourage participation in domestic and international scientific studies, continuously changing appointment and promotion criteria, and staff occupancy that are thought to be experienced by academic staff strengthen the idea that stress and deprivation are problems that should be taken into consideration for academicians. Therefore, this study was planned and conducted to examine the relationship between relative deprivation and perceived stress among academicians. Design/methodology/approach – The population of the study consists of academicians working at two public universities in Ankara. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) developed by Cohen et al. (1983) and the Relative Deprivation Scale developed by Callan et al. (2011) were used in the study. While evaluating the study data, frequency distribution for categorical variables and descriptive statistics for numerical variables were given. The independent samples t-test was used to examine the difference between categorical variables with two groups, and the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the difference between categorical variables with more than two groups. Pearson's correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between two numerical variables. Findings – According to the results of the study, it was determined that the mean relative deprivation score of academicians was close to high levels, and the mean perceived stress score was high. It was found that there was a high positive correlation between relative deprivation and perceived stress. Discussion – It was found that there was a high positive correlation between relative deprivation and perceived stress. Accordingly, perceived stress levels of individuals increase as relative deprivation increases. Considering that relative deprivation is a social and perceptual phenomenon, this finding is in line with expectations. In a ccordance w ith t his r esult, i t c an b e thought that the feeling of deprivation resulting from the perception of unequal and unfair results causes stress in academicians.

The effect of classical Turkish and Western music on university students' exam stress level, blood pressure and pulse rate: a randomized controlled trial

Introduction: Exam stress may cause anxiety, worry, emotion and condition changes in university students. Students use various methods to cope with exam stress. Music is a method used to cope with anxiety that reduces the stress level of individuals by creating a deep relaxation and providing a therapeutic environment. This research was carried out in a randomized controlled pre-test and post-test to examine the effect of regular Classical Turkish and Western music on university students’ exam stress level, blood pressure and pulse findings.Material and Method: The sample of the study consisted of 88 students (40 experiments, 48 controls) studying in different departments at this University between November 2017 and February 2018. Data were collected by exam anxiety scale and personal information form. The experiment group was played 25 minutes 4 days a week total 6 weeks and Classic Western and Classical Turkish music just before the exam. Examination anxiety scale was re-applied to the experimental and control groups just before the examination, and the vital sign findings of the students were examined.Findings: The mean score of the experimental group was 41.40±9.40 and the postest mean score was 23.20±4.16 and there was a statistically significant difference (p&amp;lt;0.01). In addition, diastolic, systolic blood pressure and pulse rate of the students in the group who listen to music were lower than those who did not listen to music. Conclusion: It has been determined that regular music performance is an effective method in reducing the stress levels and anxiety levels of the students.

The Effect of Foot Reflexology Applied Before Coronary Angiography and Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty on Anxiety, Stress, and Cortisol Levels of Individuals: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Coronary angiography and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty procedures cause anxiety and stress in individuals. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of foot reflexology applied before coronary angiography and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty on the anxiety, stress, and cortisol levels of individuals. A simple randomized trial design was used. The patients who met the inclusion criteria were divided into 4 groups including experimental and control groups of coronary angiography patients (30 patients in each group) and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (26 patients in each group) by randomization method. Data were collected with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Distress Thermometer 90 minutes before coronary angiography and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and the laboratory samples were taken. After these procedures, foot reflexology was applied to both feet of the patients in the experimental group for 30 minutes, and the control group received only standard care. The inventories were reapplied 30 minutes after the reflexology application and after coronary angiography and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. Whereas there was no statistically significant difference (P > .05) between the coronary angiography and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty experimental and control groups in Anxiety Inventory and stress median scores before reflexology, a significant difference was found (P < .001) 30 minutes after reflexology application and after coronary angiography and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. After the reflexology, anxiety and stress scores were significantly lower in the experimental group compared with the control group (P < .001). Whereas there was a significant difference (P < .001) in the within-group cortisol values of both reflexology groups, no significant difference was found in the control groups (P > .05). The application of reflexology before coronary angiography and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty reduces the levels of anxiety, stress, and cortisol without any side effects.

Four Weeks of Acute Intermittent Fasting Enhances Body Composition and Decreases Stress Levels in Healthy Individuals: A Pilot Study

IntroductionThe obesity epidemic affects nearly 78 million adults in the United States. Weight loss and improvement of body composition through physical activity and dietary modifications, can help decrease the risk for obesity‐related disease. Weight management programs are numerous, with an estimated 45 million Americans undertaking a diet each year. There are several different types of diets: such as those that emphasize consumption or an increase/decrease in protein, carbohydrates, fat, or amount of total daily calories. A novel, modified alternative method to caloric restriction is Intermittent Fasting.PurposeTo determine the acute effect of four weeks of Intermittent Fasting on body composition, stress levels, sleep quality, and quality of life.MethodsSixteen participants, 9 males and 7 females, with mean age 34.0 ± 11.7 years, completed a four‐week session of Intermittent Fasting. Participants were excluded if they had Diabetes or Metabolic Syndrome. The participants fasted for 16 hours from the time of their last meal of the evening to the start of their first meal the following day. Once the fast was broken, the participants were required to consume their normal daily caloric intake within an 8‐hour period, with no requirements on the number of meals. Participants did not make changes to their activity levels throughout the four weeks. Body composition was determined using the InBody 770 (InBody USA, Cerritos, CA). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale were administered to determine sleep quality and self‐awareness of stress levels. Quality of Life was assessed using the 36‐Item Short Form Survey Instrument.ResultsFollowing four weeks of Intermittent Fasting, there were significant reductions in mean body fat percentage (26.2±2.5 vs. 25.4±2.5, p=0.01), visceral fat (cm2) (98.2±15.3 vs. 94.1±15.6, p=0.003), body fat mass (lbs) (47.5±6.6 vs. 46.2±6.9, p= 0.02), trunk fat (lbs) (25.2±3.5 vs. 24.2±3.5, p=0.001) and stress levels (14.1±1.9 vs. 11.0±1.4, p=0.03). There were no significant acute changes in sleep quality and overall quality of life.ConclusionIntermittent Fasting can be an effective option to help lower body fat and more importantly visceral fat. This in turn, could potentially aid in decreasing obesity‐related diseases. Our pilot study demonstrated potential health related benefits from an acute Intermittent Fasting program that could be incorporated into whole person wellness programs. Further research is needed to expand these positive findings over different time segments.

Social stress in female Columbian ground squirrels: density-independent effects of kin contribute to variation in fecal glucocorticoid metabolites

Social interactions among conspecifics can have marked effects on individual physiology, especially through their modulation of the stress axis by affecting the production of adrenal glucocorticoids (GCs). Previous research has focused on how individual GC levels may be influenced by social status, but few studies have considered how the balance between positive (e.g. cooperation) and negative (e.g. competition) social interactions shape individual GC levels. A lack of association between individual GC levels and social factors may be confounded by opposite effects of social competition on the one hand and social cooperation on the other. We tested for these effects in the Columbian ground squirrel (Urocitellus columbianus), a colonial rodent. During the breeding season, females are exposed to territorial unrelated neighbors and to territorial, but more tolerant, close kin. On one hand, territoriality and competition for resources led us to predict a positive association between local colony density and female GC levels. On the other, higher tolerance of philopatric kin females and known fitness benefits led us to predict a negative association between kin numbers and female GC levels. We compared levels of fecal cortisol metabolites (FCMs) in females at two different spatial scales during lactation: local (a female’s core territory during lactation, 30-m radius about her nest burrow) and colony-wide. At the local scale, female FCM levels were neither related to colony density nor to the number of co-breeding female kin, but FCM levels increased with age. At the colony scale, female FCM levels varied in a quadratic fashion with female kin numbers. FCM levels decreased by 15% from 0 to 1 co-breeding kin present and increased with > 1 kin present. Among females that had only one co-breeding kin present, daughters (and littermate sisters and mothers, but not significantly) led to a 14% reduction in FCM levels compared with females that had no kin. Our results reject the idea that local colony density is associated with increased GC levels this species, but indicate subtle (positive and negative) effects of kin on individual GC secretion. They further call into question the importance of the nature of social relationships in modulating the stress experienced by individuals. Few studies have tested how the balance between positive (e.g. cooperation) and negative (e.g. competition) social interactions shapes individual stress and glucocorticoid (GC) levels in group-living animals. In colonial Columbian ground squirrels, breeding females are exposed to territorial neighbors and to more tolerant close kin. We show that kin numbers have subtle (positive and negative) effects on female GC levels. Compared with breeding females with no kin, female GC levels decrease by 15% with the presence of a single co-breeding close relative, but increase with the presence of more than one co-breeding related female. Among females that have only one co-breeding kin, the presence of daughters (and littermate sisters and mothers, but not significantly) leads to a 14% reduction in female GC levels. Our results highlight how GC levels may be influenced by the specific nature of social relationships in group-living animals.

Lifetime distribution selection for complete and censored multi-level testing data and its influence on probability of failure estimates

A general method of lifetime distribution selection for multi-level complete and censored testing data is developed. To alleviate the scarcity of test samples at each individual stress levels, a mathematical model is incorporated to correlate the lifetimes and stresses allowing for utilizing the multi-level lifetime data as a whole. Probabilistic modeling of the model prediction error is made and the equivalence between the lifetime distribution and the error distribution is shown. Based on the error modeling and likelihood functions, a Bayesian framework for lifetime distribution selection is proposed. It is shown that the classical information criterion is a local measure and the Bayes factor is a global measure over the likelihood space. A two-step assessment procedure integrating the goodness-of-fit and asymptotic Bayes factors is given. The proposed method is demonstrated using three engineering examples. Comparisons between the proposed method and the conventional methods such as ratio test and the difference of information criteria are made. The influence of the distribution selection on the subsequent probability of failure estimates is discussed.

Stress and serum cortisol levels in major depressive disorder: a cross-sectional study.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the disorders that most causes disability and affects about 265 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Chronic stress is one of the most prevalent factors that trigger MDD. Among the most relevant biological mechanisms that mediate stress and MDD are changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function. Hypercortisolism is one of the relevant mechanisms involved in response to stress and is present in many people with MDD and in animals subjected to stress in the laboratory. This study aimed to investigate the levels of stress and cortisol in individuals diagnosed with MDD from the Basic Health Unit (BHU) in a small city in the western region of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Depression scores were assessed using Beck's inventory. For the investigation of stress, an adaptation with twenty-four questions of the Checklist-90-R manual was performed. The analysis of the cortisol levels in the individuals' serum was by the chemiluminescence method. Depression and stress scores were significantly higher in individuals with MDD than in control subjects (p < 0.001). Cortisol levels were also significantly higher in individuals with MDD (p < 0.05). Besides, depression scores were positively correlated with stress scores in individuals with MDD (Pearson's “r” = 0.70). Conclusion: Individuals with MDD had higher stress levels and cortisol than control subjects. The positive correlation between the levels of stress and depression in MDD individuals suggests that these conditions are related to a dysregulation of the HPA axis function.

Yoga as a holistic approach for stress management in Oral Cancer patients. A prospective study.

Background and Aims:Oral cancer has been ranked as the sixth most common cancer globally. It has been reported to be increasing in incidence especially, in the southern parts of Asia which chiefly includes, India. Diagnosis of oral cancer is followed by a vigorous and highly morbid treatment protocol which drastically impacts the patient's quality of life. This in turn can cause extreme stress in a person. This study aimed to assess the impact of the practice of Yoga on stress levels in cancer patients.Materials and Methods:A total of 200 subjects diagnosed with oral cancer were selected for this study. Their stress levels were scored both before and after initiating the practice of Yogic exercises in a one-month interval using a questionnaire. Obtained scores were entered in Microsoft Excel 2007 worksheet and an unpaired t-test was applied. P values of less than 0.05 and 0.001 were considered statistically significant and extremely significant, respectively.Results:Study results showed a reduction in stress level scores (48 ± 0.99 to 37 ± 5.2) after adopting yoga for one month. An extremely significant P value of less than 0.001 was obtained.Conclusion:It can be concluded from this study that yoga is an effective method in reducing stress levels in individuals diagnosed with oral cancer.

Effects of Daily Stress in Mental State Classification

An external stimulus, event, or environment that stresses an individual is called a stressor. Many mental stress detection studies have been focused on the discrimination of the mental state with and without the experimental stressor. However, the mental state in the absence of experimental stressors may not represent accurately the nonstress (baseline) state because people inherently experience considerable stress in their daily lives. Therefore, we assumed that stress detection could be improved more accurately by considering the daily stress. In this study, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was measured in 41 healthy participants to quantify their prefrontal cortical oxygenation during performing a cognitive task as an experimental stressor, considering individual daily stress level based on the self-report. We then extracted six signal features, including the slope, mean, standard deviation, peak, skewness, and kurtosis of the oxygenated hemoglobin concentration. Using various feature combinations and time windows, we successfully managed to classify daily stress (high/low) and the mental state (task/rest) with support vector machine classifiers. Specifically, individual daily stress level can be easily discriminated with signal features from fNIRS. Moreover, mental state classification performance improved significantly when the daily stress level was handled separately. The findings of this study show the feasibility of the fNIRS-based daily stress classification and can be used in the future to design a robust mental stress management system for the assessment of daily stress in individuals.

Temporal vs. spatial variation in stress-associated metabolites within a population of climate-sensitive small mammals.

ABSTRACTTemporal variation in stress might signify changes in an animal’s internal or external environment, while spatial variation in stress might signify variation in the quality of the habitats that individual animals experience. Habitat-induced variations in stress might be easiest to detect in highly territorial animals, and especially in species that do not take advantage of common strategies for modulating habitat-induced stress, such as migration (escape in space) or hibernation (escape in time). Spatial and temporal variation in response to potential stressors has received little study in wild animals, especially at scales appropriate for relating stress to specific habitat characteristics. Here, we use the American pika (Ochotona princeps), a territorial small mammal, to investigate stress response within and among territories. For individually territorial animals such as pikas, differences in habitat quality should lead to differences in stress exhibited by territory owners. We indexed stress using stress-associated hormone metabolites in feces collected non-invasively from pika territories every 2 weeks from June to September 2018. We hypothesized that differences in territory quality would lead to spatial differences in mean stress and that seasonal variation in physiology or the physical environment would lead to synchronous variation across territories through time. We used linear mixed-effects models to explore spatiotemporal variation in stress using fixed effects of day-of-year and broad habitat characteristics (elevation, aspect, site), as well as local variation in habitat characteristics hypothesized to affect territory quality for this saxicolous species (talus depth, clast size, available forage types). We found that temporal variation within territories was greater than spatial variation among territories, suggesting that shared seasonal stressors are more influential than differences in individual habitat quality. This approach could be used in other wildlife studies to refine our understanding of habitat quality and its effect on individual stress levels as a driver of population decline.

Determination of depression, anxiety and stress (DAS) levels in patients with atopic dermatitis: a case-control study

ABSTRACT The present study was aimed at comparing depression, anxiety and stress (DAS) levels of individuals with atopic dermatitis with those of the individuals without atopic dermatitis, and to examine the DAS levels of the patients with atopic dermatitis in terms of their socio-demographic characteristics. Case control study conducted in a city in western Turkey. The present study in which the relational screening model was used was conducted with patients with atopic dermatitis who presented to the Dermatology Clinic/Polyclinic of a university hospital and healthy subjects, and volunteered to participate in the study. The study conducted between December 2017 and February 2018 included 150 people (75 healthy subjects, 75 patients with atopic dermatitis). To collect the study data, the participants were administered the Socio-demographic Characteristics Questionnaire prepared by the researcher and the Depression, Stress and Anxiety Scale (DASS-42). No significant difference was determined between the mean DASS scores obtained by the atopic dermatitis patients and those obtained by the healthy subjects in the control group (p > 0.05). Of the atopic dermatitis patients, 58.7%, 82.3% and 49.3% were within the normal ranges in terms of the mean scores they obtained from the stress, depression and anxiety subscales respectively. In the present study, the mean scores obtained from the depression and anxiety subscales by working atopic dermatitis patients were higher than those obtained by the nonworking patients (p < 0.05). The mean scores obtained from the stress subscale by the smokers with atopic dermatitis were higher than those obtained by the non-smokers with atopic dermatitis.

A Study on Effects of Job Stress of Employees in Indian Overseas Bank, Villupuram District

This article “A study on effects of job stress of employees in Indian Overseas Bank, Villupuram District” focused mainly on employee’s welfare and their main objective is to bring out the mental burden of employees during their work and all my following objectives are given from the original study area. To study the profile of Indian Overseas Bank in Villupuram branch. To analyze the staff stress in Indian Overseas bank in study area. To find out the finding related suggestions and conclusion. Sampling Technique The study was mainly carried out by empirical investigation through the collection of primary data from the employee at Indian overseas bank, Villupuram. There were only 50 employees at Indian overseas bank, Villupuram. Hence, the entire populations were selected as the samples for the study. A limitation of the Study The present study has a few limitations. The following are some of them. Since the study is confined to bank managers and bank staff members onlyit may not apply to other types bank staff members and managers. The findings of the study are based only on the views of the bank managers, other Staff in IOB bank in Villupuram branch at the particular period of study. The findings may not hold good forever. The questions involving the family set up and other personal details, which may have an impact on the stress level of individuals, were omitted in order to limit the size of the study.

Copeptin in CCK-4-induced panic in healthy man: Sexual dimorphisms in secretion pattern and panic response, but no correlation of copeptin with panic symptoms

Copeptin, the C-terminal part of the hypothalamic arginine vaspopressin (AVP) precursor, closely mirrors the production of AVP and was proposed as an easily measured novel marker of the individual stress level in man. First data in male volunteers proposed copeptin as a potential endocrine surrogate marker of cholecystokinin-tetrapeptide (CCK-4)-induced panic. We tried to replicate these pilot data and to extend them to the other sex.46 healthy human subjects (29 men, 17 women) were given an intravenous bolus of 50 μg CCK-4. Basal and stimulated plasma copeptin was measured and panic symptoms were assessed using the Acute Panic Inventory (API).Basal copeptin was significantly lower in women vs. men, while men showed a significantly higher CCK-4-induced increase of copeptin. In contrast, female subjects displayed a signifcantly higher increase of API ratings by CCK-4. No significant correlations of panic symptoms and copeptin release induced by CCK-4 could be found, neither in man, nor in women, nor in the total sample.A sexual dimorphism in copeptin secretion and in panic response was demonstrated. Prior unexpected findings of copeptin release as an objective read-out of panic could not be replicated. The role of the vasopressinergic system in panic anxiety needs further study in panic patients and in healthy man, using also other panic provocation paradigms.

Understanding and Measuring Psychological Stress Using Social Media

A body of literature has demonstrated that users’ mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, can be predicted from their social media language. There is still a gap in the scientific understanding of how psychological stress is expressed on social media. Stress is one of the primary underlying causes and correlates of chronic physical illnesses and mental health conditions. In this paper, we explore the language of psychological stress with a dataset of 601 social media users, who answered the Perceived Stress Scale questionnaire and also consented to share their Facebook and Twitter data. Firstly, we find that stressed users post about exhaustion, losing control, increased self-focus and physical pain as compared to posts about breakfast, family-time, and travel by users who are not stressed. Secondly, we find that Facebook language is more predictive of stress than Twitter language. Thirdly, we demonstrate how the language based models thus developed can be adapted and be scaled to measure county-level trends. Since county-level language is easily available on Twitter using the Streaming API, we explore multiple domain adaptation algorithms to adapt user-level Facebook models to Twitter language. We find that domain-adapted and scaled social mediabased measurements of stress outperform sociodemographic variables (age, gender, race, education, and income), against ground-truth survey-based stress measurements, both at the user- and the county-level in the U.S. Twitter language that scores higher in stress is also predictive of poorer health, less access to facilities and lower socioeconomic status in counties. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of using social media as a new tool for monitoring stress levels of both individuals and counties.