The online admonition to "touch grass" to soothe your emotional state may be backed by science — at least in lab mice.

A recent study finds that mice that live outside are less anxious than those that spend their days in safe, shoebox-sized cages. And that may highlight a fundamental flaw in laboratory research, including that used to test the safety and effectiveness of drugs eventually intended for people.

Medications that seem to work in lab mice don't necessarily work in human patients, and some scientists think that they might fail, in part, because of how bizarre and isolated laboratory life is for the rodents.

"Why is there that huge gap in results between the animal models in the labs and the real-life experiences when we test [many] drugs in humans?" said first study author Matthew Zipple, a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University "We think much of this effect may be explained by this really artificial, standardized environment in which lab animals are kept."

The findings were published in December in the journal Current Biology.

Less anxious in the outdoors

Both wild mice and humans have rich social environments, and wild mice are constantly on the go, foraging, burrowing and facing risks, including the many predators that like to snack on them.

In comparison, lab mice sit in small cages with two or three same-sex siblings. There, food and water are delivered on a regular schedule. Studying medications in those mice may be akin to limiting research to prisoners in solitary confinement, Zipple told Live Science.

Zipple and his colleagues set out to compare the psychology of two groups of lab mice: a group that remained in a laboratory and a group that lived with other mice in an outdoor enclosure, complete with grass, dirt and exposure to the sky. They did so using a standard maze, called the "elevated plus maze," which has two enclosed arms and two open, catwalk-style arms.

On their first exposure to this maze under bright lab lights, lab mice typically explore the open arms, find them terrifying, and basically never venture out on them again. Instead, they remain in the comparatively safe, enclosed portion of the maze. This reaction is so consistent that researchers use the open arms to induce and measure anxiety in lab mice.

But mice living in a wild-type environment weren't freaked out by the open arms at all, Zipple and his team found. They spent just as much time exploring these areas on subsequent visits to the maze as they had the first time, all while under bright light.

Meanwhile, cage-dwelling mice that were sent to live outside also saw their maze anxiety evaporate; animals that already had demonstrated an apparent fear of the open arms and then spent a week outside subsequently spent twice as much time exploring the open arms compared with animals that kept living in cages.

The use of the standardized maze was a "very powerful way to show the limits of business as usual," said Andrea Graham, an evolutionary ecologist at Princeton University who was not involved in the research.

Caged mice have other key differences

Graham's lab has shown that mice that live in lab cages are also immunologically different from mice who live outside and encounter dirt, plants and large numbers of other mice. That matters, she said.

In one famous 2006 case, a medication called TGN1412 seemed to boost the immune system against leukemia in lab mice but caused a near-fatal immune reaction in the first six healthy human volunteers exposed to the drug. Subsequent research revealed that, in the lab mice, the medication activated immune cells that regulate and calm the immune response. However, in mice living in wild-type enclosures, the medication instead activated cells that ramp up the immune response to the point that the body attacked itself.

"If we restrict ourselves to only studying a couple of different genotypes [genetic profiles] of lab mouse in the same immunologically boring, psychologically boring environments, we're not going to really be able to study the full spectrum of human immune or nervous system response to the environment," Graham told Live Science.

Using wild-style enclosures requires some upfront cost and effort, and it also reduces the rigid control that's placed on study animals in order to limit confounding variables in experiments. As such, they pull biomedical scientists out of their comfort zone, Zipple said.

But adding in tests of these less-confined mice could save a lot of effort and money on the human trials side by pinpointing the medications that are most likely to translate from the lab to the clinic, the study authors argue. Zipple and his colleagues are now looking at ways that caged and wild-living mice age differently.

"The broader goal is to make a list of biomedically relevant behaviors, phenotypes [observable traits] and psychological traits that look the same in the lab and the field," he said, to help with the issue of translating results to humans. They also want to compile a "list of traits that look quite different," he said.

Stress, anxiety and sleepless nights do more than erode peace of mind — they can also weaken the body's defenses, making people more susceptible to infections, cancers and autoimmune disorders. Now, scientists have uncovered a potential mechanism that may link these psychological factors and immunity issues.

In a new study, published Dec. 10 in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, researchers zeroed in on a type of immune cell called natural killer (NK) cells that may play a key role.

The research was partly inspired by a 2022 national screening study conducted in Saudi Arabia that showed generalized anxiety order (GAD) was on the rise, and that the trend was most pronounced in women. People with GAD experience constant, uncontrollable worrying, and their concern is typically more intense than the situation calls for; this can cause an array of related symptoms, including sleep problems.

This finding led immunologist and lead study author Renad Alhamawi at Taibah University in Medina, Saudi Arabia, to explore how anxiety might affect immunity among women.

Alhamawi and her colleagues recruited 60 female students between ages 17 and 23 and asked them to fill out a questionnaire about their mental health. The responses showed that 75% reported symptoms consistent with GAD — such as feeling nervous, being so restless that it's hard to sit still, or becoming easily irritable— including 13% with severe symptoms. (Although the participants were screened for GAD symptoms, none were officially diagnosed as part of this study.)

About 53% of the cohort, or 32 students, reported not getting enough sleep.

Next, the researchers took blood samples from the participants and surveyed the levels of various immune cells, which revealed that those who experienced anxiety-like symptoms had 38% fewer NK cells than those without symptoms.

NK cells are one of the first types of immune cells to respond to an infection or to the presence of cancer in the body, and immunologists split them into two subsets. The first subset secretes enzymes that break down and "kill" diseased cells. The second subset works by secreting protein signals, called cytokines, that regulate other immune cells. A reduced abundance of these dual-action cells could potentially predispose individuals to disease.

The participants who reported anxiety symptoms had reduced levels of both subsets of NK cells, while people reporting insufficient sleep had 40% fewer of the immune-regulating subset of cells only.

Importantly, this study found only a correlation between these anxiety symptoms, sleep and reduced NK cell levels; the researchers have yet to explore a causal link, let alone investigate whether this drop in NK cells could lead to markedly higher rates of disease.

It is not yet clear what factors might be behind this change in NK cell abundance in the bloodstream. For example, it could be that the cells die off or that the body renews them at a slower rate.

Also, "focusing on circulating NK cells [in the blood] does not allow investigation of NK cells infiltrating the nervous system," Stefano Garofalo, an immunologist at the Sapienza University of Rome who was not involved with the work, told Live Science in an email. He speculated that the drop in NK cells could happen if they migrate from the bloodstream into nerve tissue in people who have anxiety or insomnia. His research focuses on how NK cells help regulate brain function and shape behavior in mice.

These findings are consistent with those from other research, such as a study on chronic tinnitus, wherein participants who reported higher stress levels had fewer cell-killing NK cells. Alhamawi said that the stress hormone cortisol may drive down NK cell populations because it is known to exert other immune-suppressing effects. For instance, cortisol can hinder antigen-specific T cells, a type of immune cell that recognizes features of specific threats, like viruses.

"Anxiety increases the level of cortisol, so we think it might affect the number of NK cells in an indirect way," Alhamawi said.

The current research has a few caveats. "The main limitation of the study is the very small participant group, consisting exclusively of women under 25 years of age and belonging to a single ethnic background," Garofalo said. Future studies could determine if the correlation is more generalizable, using a larger mixed-sex population of individuals from different backgrounds.

Alhamawi noted that she would like to perform a long-term study, in which researchers track how anxiety, sleeping patterns and NK cell levels change over time in the same cohort of participants. That could provide a clearer picture of the relationship between these psychological factors and immunity, as well as the incidence of disease.

"We can see if there is [an] effect by testing if they develop more infectious disease or chronic disease," she added.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

A single dose of the psychedelic drug LSD may ease generalized anxiety disorder for months, a clinical trial has found.

The trial results, published Thursday (Sept. 4) in JAMA, include data from 194 people with moderate to severe anxiety across the U.S. The study compared these participants' responses to different doses of LSD against a placebo treatment. It found that the drug alleviated symptoms in many patients for at least three months after just one exposure.

That said, participants who were given low doses of LSD — either 25 or 50 micrograms — did not see a significant change in their symptoms. The effect kicked in only at higher doses — either 100 or 200 micrograms — and those given 100-microgram doses had the best results.

In fact, 12 weeks out from treatment, about 47% of the people who were given 100 micrograms were in remission, based on a standardized anxiety rating scale. And about 65% of the people in that group saw their scores on the scale fall by at least half. By comparison, only about 20% of the placebo group was in remission at the 12-week mark and about 30% saw their scores halved.

"This work has the potential to make significant contributions to the emerging field of psychedelic drug research," Dr. Claudio Soares, a professor of psychiatry at the Queen's University School of Medicine in Ontario, wrote in a commentary about the trial. It's the first study to examine how different doses of LSD compare with a placebo for relieving anxiety. In addition, the trial didn't explicitly incorporate psychotherapy into the treatment, meaning it could help pin down whether LSD in and of itself has an anti-anxiety effect, he added.

"Furthermore, the study highlighted an early response to treatment and positive effects on comorbid depressive symptoms, both of which are promising findings that should guide future trials," Soares said.

Related: 1 psychedelic psilocybin dose eases depression for years, study reveals

While there are approved anti-anxiety drugs, not all patients respond to them, the trial runners noted in their report. Estimates suggest about 50% of patients do not have an adequate response to first-line anxiety treatments, such as benzodiazepines or serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs, which are also used for depression).

As such, there's still a need for more effective, well-tolerated anti-anxiety medicines, the trial runners argue.

Enter LSD. The psychedelic is thought to trigger its mind-altering effects — such as visual hallucinations and a feeling of being high — in part by enabling communication between brain cells that don't normally interact. It's thought that this action might trigger a period of enhanced plasticity in the brain, during which a person with anxiety could break out of the harmful thought patterns that characterize the condition. But this mechanism is not fully understood and is still being studied.

Trials that have combined LSD with psychotherapy hinted that the drug can have a positive and sustained effect in treating anxiety. But because these trials were testing two interventions — LSD plus therapy — it's hard to know what LSD was contributing on its own.

The new trial aimed to investigate that question by including people who were not undergoing psychotherapy. In all, 18% of the participants were receiving external psychotherapy when they entered the study and continued receiving therapy during the study, the report noted.

At baseline, the 194 participants scored an average of 30 on an anxiety scale from 0 to 56, where the threshold for "severe" anxiety is 24. A score of 7 or less indicates remission. Patients given the 100-microgram dose saw, on average, a 21-point drop in their scores.

"A treatment effect emerged 1 day after the dosing day and persisted through week 12," the report authors noted.

The vast majority of side effects tied to the treatment were expected and resolved once the dosing of the drug concluded. These effects included visual perception changes, nausea, headache and euphoric mood. Notably, side effects were reported across all the study groups, including the placebo group, but occurred at the highest rates in the high-dose groups. For instance, more than 90% of the 100-microgram group reported hallucinations, as did 100% of the 200-microgram group.

Two people reported "feeling intoxicated" in the 50- and 100-microgram groups, respectively, but felt normal by the end of the dosing session.

Although the side effects were generally mild to moderate in severity, they did prompt a handful of people to drop out of the trial, so the LSD treatment may not be tolerable to all patients.

The trial does have some limitations, including the short follow-up time of only three months and the inclusion of some patients who still underwent therapy during the trial, Soares said. But in all, the trial provides crucial data that could help "further inform regulatory pathways for the use of psychedelic drugs as stand-alone treatments," he said.

Future research will be needed to evaluate how well the effects of the drug last over longer time frames, particularly after a single dose, he concluded.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

Max was a fun-loving Labrador retriever who enjoyed going for car rides and greeting clients at his owner's office. But around age 16, Max suddenly started having accidents in the house and stopped sleeping well at night. He became irritable and seemed not to understand the words and commands he had long known.

Max was showing symptoms of a disorder called cognitive dysfunction syndrome, which can affect cats and dogs as they age. In dogs, it looks very similar to Alzheimer's disease, which causes memory loss and dementia in humans, usually as they grow older.

I study how humans and other animals learn, and my research involves working with many different species, from bees to pigeons and crawfish. Part of my work involves paying attention to conditions that can affect mental health in animals.

Sometimes genetic or developmental changes affect how the brain is built, which can lead to mental disabilities or learning differences. In other cases, animals may be exposed to scary or stressful situations that can cause mental health problems. Here are some examples:

Understanding animal genes

Down syndrome is a common genetic condition that can slow down learning and thinking in humans. People born with Down syndrome may have a harder time learning new things, remembering information and making complicated decisions.

Down syndrome is caused by changes to a chromosome — the strands in our cells that store our genes. Normally, people have 23 pairs of chromosomes; when someone is born with an extra copy of chromosome 21, it produces the effects of Down syndrome.

Most animals can't have Down syndrome, because their genes are organized into chromosomes differently than human genes. However, our closest relatives, including chimpanzees and orangutans, do have a similar organization of genes. Conditions very much like Down syndrome have been observed in these species.

One example, Kanako, was a female chimpanzee born in a research facility in Japan. She had vision and heart problems caused by an extra chromosome. Scientists don't know whether Kanako had trouble with learning, because her vision problems made that difficult to test. However, Kanako enjoyed socializing with other chimpanzees and lived a long life in a wildlife sanctuary.

Wild chimpanzees are probably also sometimes born with genetic conditions like Down syndrome, but the effects make it difficult to survive in the wild, just like being born with a heart or a foot that doesn't develop normally. Kanako was able to live a healthy life thanks to the help of her human caretakers and good veterinary care.

Related: 32 animals that act weirdly human sometimes

Coping with trauma and stress

Animals that are born healthy can also develop mental health problems in response to conditions around them.

For example, just as soldiers may develop post-traumatic stress disorder after experiencing a life-threatening situation, working military and police dogs can develop a similar condition. Dogs with canine PTSD may cling to their owners, startle at everyday noises, or frequently act panicky or fearful.

Veterinarians can prescribe anti-anxiety medication to help these dogs stay calm during scary events, like fireworks or thunderstorms. Owners also can use behavioral treatments to reward the dogs for staying calm and relaxed around things that seem frightening.

Most traumatic events, like earthquakes or car accidents, can't be predicted in advance. However, in some cases, such as capturing and restraining a wild animal to relocate it, workers use tranquilizers or sedatives to make the animal sleepy, or cover its eyes and ears to reduce fear and prevent long-lasting problems.

Another common cause of mental health problems in animals is daily stress. Animals held in captivity at zoos, farms or research labs may experience stress from sources such as traffic noises, uncomfortable temperatures or not being able to engage in certain natural behaviors.

Animals have many signature behaviors: Penguins swim, meerkats dig, baboons socialize and chickens take dust baths. When animals can't do important behaviors, they may experience stress and mental problems.

To keep this from happening, zookeepers and animal caretakers provide environmental enrichment — objects, structures and activities that stimulate the animals' minds and help keep them from getting bored.

Supporting your pet

Sometimes it's easy to see when animals are stressed or anxious. They may pace back and forth, spend their days in hiding or be unusually aggressive. Getting sick frequently or losing weight can also be a sign of poor mental health. Certain hormones, called corticosteroids, can be measured from a poop sample to provide clues about whether an animal is under too much stress.

Even pets in loving homes can experience mental health problems. Some dogs struggle with separation anxiety — extreme fear of being left alone by their owner. Lack of mental or physical activity can also produce anxiety symptoms.

Whether it means taking your dog to the dog park to run and socialize, or building puzzles that hide treats for your parakeet to find, keeping animals busy is good for them. In more serious cases, veterinarians can prescribe medication or behavioral treatments to help your pet feel better.

Humans can use science to understand the many conditions that affect mental health in animals and find treatments to help them. We also can show compassion and care for others — whether human or animal — who experience mental problems.

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

We've all seen it, typically on television or on stage: A hypnotist selects a few members from the audience, and with what seems to be little more than a steely stare or a few choice words, they're suddenly "under the spell." Depending on what the hypnotist suggests, the participants laugh, dance and perform without inhibition.

Or perhaps you've experienced hypnosis another way — with a trip to a hypnotherapist for a series of sessions to help you stop smoking, lose weight, manage pain or deal with depression. This is no longer unusual; thousands of Americans have done the same thing. And many were helped.

Hypnosis has been found to be effective for treating irritable bowel syndrome, and it may be beneficial for weight reduction, sleep disorders and anxiety. For mild to moderate depression in adults, hypnotherapy is as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy, and it can help with depression in children. Hypnosis is also used to treat phobias, PTSD and to control pain during surgery and dental procedures in both adults and children.

Yet despite the evidence, its widespread use and its growing popularity, hypnosis is still viewed with skepticism by some scientists, and with curiosity by much of the public. As a researcher studying altered states from a cognitive and neuroscientific perspective, I'm happy to help pull back the curtain to show you how hypnosis works.

A hypnotherapy session

In simple terms, hypnosis is a procedure that helps people imagine different experiences that feel very real. When that occurs, the person can be said to be in a state of hypnosis.

Little is known about what characterizes a hypnotic state in terms of brain activity, but neuroimaging studies indicate a decrease in activity in the parts of the brain responsible for self-referential thought and daydreaming, and increased links between the parts responsible for attention and action.

Related: Electric pulses to the brain may make people easier to hypnotize

These results are consistent with the idea that people who are hypnotized are in a state that inhibits internal thoughts and other distractions, such as bodily sensations or noises, that may interfere with the hypnosis.

A therapist's first set of suggestions typically includes the "hypnotic induction," which helps the subject increase their responsiveness to other suggestions. An induction may be like this: "I will now count from 5 to 1. At every count, you will feel even more relaxed, and that you are going deeper and deeper into hypnosis."

When responding to suggestions, the subject's experience feels involuntary. That is, it's happening to them, rather than generated by them. This is known as the classical suggestion effect. Following a suggestion to move their arm, the subject may feel as though their arm rises on its own, rather than being raised of their own volition.

For perceptual suggestions, the experience can feel quite real and distinct from voluntary imagination. If I ask you to imagine hearing a dog barking outside, it requires an effort, and the experience does not feel like there's really a dog barking outside. But through hypnotic suggestion, responsive subjects will feel like they hear a dog barking, and they won't be cognizant of any effort to make it happen.

What makes people hypnotizable?

You can't force anyone to be hypnotized. Willingness to participate, a positive attitude, motivation and expectation are hugely important. So is the ability to set aside the fact that the situation is imaginative. It's like when you become fully absorbed with the story and characters in a movie — so absorbed you forget you're in a theater.

Good rapport with the therapist is also critical. If you refuse to cooperate or decide hypnosis won't work, it won't. A good comparison may be meditation: You can listen to a meditation recording, but if you're unwilling to follow the instructions, or if you're unmotivated or distracted, it won't have any effect.

Few traits predict whether someone is easily hypnotizable, but people are not equal in their ability to respond to hypnotic suggestions. Some people vividly experience a wide array of suggestions; others, not nearly as much. There are indications that women respond slightly better to hypnotic suggestions than men, and that peak hypnotizability occurs during late childhood and early teenage years.

From a neuroscientific perspective, it appears that hypnotic suggestions do not act directly on our executive functions, but rather on our self-monitoring functions. That is, hypnosis does not directly decide our behaviors for us. Rather, it modifies how the brain monitors what it's doing. So when the hypnotist suggests that you raise your arm, you're still the one making that decision — although your experience may seem like the arm is moving by itself.

Exposure therapy, self-hypnosis

The aim of hypnotherapy is to induce changes in negative emotions, perceptions and actions. Suppose you are afraid of public speaking. Through suggestions, the therapist may make you go through the experience of talking in front of an audience. Again, it feels real — your stress level will rise, but ultimately you'll habituate yourself and learn to cope with the stress, even as the therapist suggests increasingly challenging scenarios.

Hypnosis can also be used as a preparation or replacement for exposure therapy, which is a method to treat phobias or anxiety related to specific situations by progressively exposing the patient to increasingly challenging situations. If you're afraid of birds, the therapist may suggest you imagine holding a feather; then imagine getting near a bird in a cage; then imagine going to the park and feeding pigeons. This is more effective, and feels more real, than mere visualization.

The hypnotherapist can also teach self-hypnosis techniques. Subjects can learn to induce a state of relaxation that's associated with a gesture, such as closing the left hand.

Hypnotic suggestions like this decrease anxiety by promoting activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, which stimulates bodily functions during times of rest, such as digestion and sexual arousal, and deactivates the sympathetic nervous system, which stimulates the fight-or-flight response.

Progress can occur after less than 10 sessions with some disorders, such as insomnia in children. But it may take longer for others, such as depression. And just as hypnosis is not suitable for everyone, it's also not suitable for everything.

What's more, not all hypnotherapy products on the market are backed by scientific evidence. It is safer to go to a hypnotherapist who's licensed in your state. You should ask whether they are affiliated with or certified by a professional association of hypnotherapists. You can then confirm their affiliation on the association's website. For instance, the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis allows you to search members by name.

Although Medicare does not cover hypnotherapy, some private insurance partially covers the costs for some conditions, provided the treatment is performed by a licensed clinical mental health professional. One session will typically cost between US$100 and $250.

This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Scientists just discovered that the primary messengers controlling the brain's "fear circuit" aren't what we thought they were.

When you accidentally touch a pan on the stovetop or brush up against a scalding hot iron, you reflexively pull back with a feeling of pain and a sudden sense of danger. This is because the pain receptors in your hands shoot a signal through your spinal cord and brainstem, where a specific group of neurons then sends those signals to the brain's fear center, the amygdala. This triggers an emotional fear response that, in this case, helps us remember to avoid touching hot surfaces — but this fear-driven mechanism also comes into play in many other scenarios.

Our ability to respond to and create a threat memory following pain happens quickly, and it is an important survival mechanism. But in disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and severe anxiety, this fear and threat response can go haywire.

Existing treatments for these disorders are only partially effective at treating the symptoms and mainly focus on tweaking molecules known as "fast-acting neurotransmitters." These extra-speedy chemical messengers are generally accepted as the relayers of rapid responses, such as pain, fear and danger avoidance. But a recent study, published July 22 in the journal Cell, calls that into question.

Related: Traumatic memories are processed differently in PTSD

Sung Han, a faculty member at the Salk Institute, and his colleagues hypothesized that other molecules could be involved in rapid fear responses — specifically, they pointed to slower-acting molecules called neuropeptides. But the proper tools to study these molecules didn't exist.

For their study, the researchers developed a new system to identify and modulate neuropeptides in live mice, and they found that it was these slow-acting molecules, not the fast-acting neurotransmitters, that play a primary role in the fear response circuit.

The threat response is not what we thought

Information from the environment travels to our brain via neurons that act as circuits, guiding the signal to where it needs to go. A signal is passed along when one neuron sends molecules, such as neurotransmitters or neuropeptides, to the next neuron in line. Fast-acting neurotransmitters are released in small packages and can quickly bind to and open another neuron's ion channels — tunnels that allow charged particles to pass in and out of the cell. This chain reaction changes the chemistry of the cell and ultimately transmits the signal to the next neuron.

Unlike neurotransmitters, slow-acting neuropeptides are released in larger packages — called large dense core vesicles (LDCVs) — and bind to a specific receptor on the neighboring neuron. This jumpstarts a cascade of enzyme activity that triggers a flurry of gene activity.

According to Han, many believe these slow neuropeptides only have a role in modulating the fast neurotransmitters, not in signaling by themselves. But Han and his colleagues were not convinced and believed the molecules play an unsung role in shuttling messages through the nervous system.

They wanted to test whether neuropeptides can act like a primary neurotransmitter, as well as identify which ones are involved in the fear response.

"But there's no tool to test this idea," Han told Live Science. The researchers would need to monitor the release of the neuropeptides in cells or in living animals and then test whether those messengers alone are sufficient to deliver information, he said."

The researchers solved this problem by designing a tool that targets the LDCVs that transport neuropeptides. They created a sensor to detect when a LDCV is released from a cell, as well as a "silencer" that degrades specific neuropeptides when and where the scientists wanted. This enabled the researchers to see what happens in the brain when those neuropeptides are absent.

The use of a sensor for LDCV release in a living animal and the ability to silence neuropeptides is a novel idea, according to Dr. Robert Edwards, a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco who was not involved in the work. "The role of many peptides remains poorly understood relative to classical transmitters, so this is largely uncharted territory," Edwards said.

Using their new tools, the researchers used lab mice to identify which neuropeptides were released when the rodents experienced various mild stimuli that elicit the fear response. One test used involved the mice experiencing a mild shock to their feet when they heard a specific sound; this conditioned the mice to freeze in place when they heard the noise.

The team looked at what happened when they silenced several neuropeptides in the mice, compared to when they switched off a neurotransmitter called glutamate. They were surprised to find that it was, in fact, the neuropeptides that were the main purveyors of the fear response, not glutamate.

They concluded this because switching off glutamate had no effect on the mice's fearful freezing behavior. However, turning off the neuropeptides suppressed that freezing behavior for a whole day.

"It was really surprising when we observed that the glutamate doesn't do anything," Han said. "So glutamate is the main molecule for neuronal communication. But at least in our case, glutamate doesn't do anything in terms of the threat signal information relaying to the amygdala."

The researchers also found that multiple neuropeptides were packaged into the same vesicle. When the researchers inhibited all these neuropeptides, they found they were able to reduce the mouse's fear response much more effectively than when they inhibited just one. Current treatments for fear and panic disorders typically target just one neurotransmitter, so this could provide a new path forward.

Han believes that designing molecules that target multiple neuropeptide receptors could result in more effective panic-disorder treatments.

"Targeting slow transmitter systems, especially the neuropeptide, for treating anxiety or PTSD or pain, I think, may be beneficial and may actually open new avenues for drug development," Han said.

Ever wonder why some people build muscle more easily than others or why freckles come out in the sun? Send us your questions about how the human body works to community@livescience.com with the subject line "Health Desk Q," and you may see your question answered on the website!

Having anxiety or depression may increase the risk of potentially life-threatening blood clots, known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

With DVT, a blood clot forms in a deep vein, usually in the legs. DVT can cause damage by limiting blood flow to the site of the clot and increasing pressure in veins. A larger danger arises if some or all of that clot breaks loose and then travels to the lungs, where it can block blood flow, causing shortness of breath, chest pain and even death.

Within the last decade, scientists have uncovered links between people's mental health and their risk of these blood clots. However, conflicting study results and complicating factors — such as some study subjects' medication use and histories of high blood pressure — have made it difficult to determine exactly how the two are connected. 

Now, a study published July 4 in the American Journal of Hematology has examined not only how much anxiety or depression can raise a person's risk of DVT but also why.

Related: Rare clotting effect of early COVID shots finally explained

"My research comes from my patients," Dr. Rachel Rosovsky, lead study author and director of thrombosis research in the Division of Hematology at Massachusetts General Hospital, told Live Science. "When I realized the association between long-term anxiety and depression and blood clots, I started to think about whether those conditions could affect a patient's risk of developing a clot."

To investigate the link, the researchers looked retrospectively at data from almost 119,000 people. The data included measurements of stress-related brain activity obtained using positron emission tomography (PET). PET scans reveal the activity levels and energy use of different parts of the brain. 

The researchers compared the activity of the amygdala — a brain region that processes and responds to potential threats — to that of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which helps regulate the amygdala and thus control emotional responses. In that way, the researchers got a snapshot of stress-related neural activity, or SNA. 

The data also included measures of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, and heart rate variability, a measure of adaptability. The higher your heart rate variability, the better your body can cope with stressful situations.

Of the overall group, about 106,450 had a diagnosis of anxiety, while 108,790 had depression; there's overlap in these groups as many participants had both conditions. 

Over an average follow-up time of 3.6 years, about 1,780 study participants experienced DVT. Those with a history of anxiety or depression were 53% and 48% more likely to experience DVT, respectively, compared with those with no history of either condition. Similar trends were seen among people with both conditions.

Related: 6 distinct forms of depression identified by AI in brain study

Furthermore, of 1,520 people who got PET scans, those with anxiety or depression showed higher SNA than those without either condition. People with higher-than-normal levels of this activity were 30% more likely to experience DVT than those with normal levels.

"We first showed that anxiety and depression were significantly associated with increased SNA," Rosovsky said. Then, the team found that SNA was associated with increased leukopoietic activity, meaning the creation of white blood cells — a driver of inflammation. 

This had previously been shown to "promote clotting through many different mechanisms," she said. And now, the team has connected the dots from anxiety and depression to SNA and on to DVT risk. 

Three potential mechanisms connect anxiety and depression to DVT: higher SNA, higher inflammation and reduced heart rate variability. It appears that the more stress a person experiences, the higher their risk of DVT, the researchers concluded.

This "intriguing study" sheds light on how SNA influences the production of blood in the body, said Kamran Mirza, a professor of hematopathology at the University of Michigan who was not involved in the study. It reveals a "potential connection between mental health and increased clotting risk that warrants further investigation," Mirza told Live Science.

Notably, the researchers were limited to data that had already been collected. Prospective studies that follow people over time would enable scientists to track changes in stress and inflammation and see how they relate to DVT. The team plans to examine how treating anxiety or depression might affect DVT rates, and they also want to see if somehow reducing SNA could reduce risk.

"If you have depression or anxiety, be aware that those are potential risk factors for blood clots," Rosovsky said. "But also think about whether you have other risk factors and what you can do about those to reduce your risk."

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

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Long-term use of benzodiazepines may shrink certain parts of the brain, new research suggests. 

The findings support current guidelines on the use of this class of drugs, which caution against using benzodiazepines for extended periods of time. 

Benzodiazepines, also known as "benzos," are sedative drugs commonly prescribed to treat numerous conditions, including insomnia, anxiety and seizure disorders. They work by slowing down the activity of the central nervous system, meaning the brain and spinal cord. This can relax a person's mood, relieve muscle spasms and also cause people to feel sleepy. 

These drugs, which include Xanax, are highly addictive and previous research has shown that long-term use comes with a risk of memory and movement issues. As such, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that benzodiazepines are prescribed at the lowest dose possible and for the minimum time required to achieve the desired clinical effects — usually around two to four weeks. 

Despite these concerns, evidence suggests that between 6% and 15% of patients prescribed benzodiazepines use the drugs for more than six months.

In the new study, published Monday (July 1) in the journal BMC Medicine, researchers have revealed another reason to be cautious about prolonged benzo use: it use may speed up the natural age-related dwindling of two regions of the brain involved in memory and mood regulation, called the hippocampus and the amygdala. 

Related: Scientists debunk myth that human brains are 'underdeveloped' at birth

The researchers reviewed the medical records of 5,443 adults in the Netherlands who initially had no reported cognitive impairment. The scientists scanned the medical records to determine if, and how many, benzodiazepines the individuals had taken daily between 1991 and 2008. On average, people took their prescribed daily dose 37 times within this time frame. 

The team found that around 50% of study participants had used benzodiazepines at some point up to 2008, and approximately 13% of the overall group went on to be diagnosed with dementia by 2020. Notably, the people who took benzodiazepines were no more likely to develop dementia than those who'd never taken them, regardless of how much they took and for how long, the team found. 

These findings contradict two prior analyses conducted by different groups of researchers. These past analyses summed up the findings of numerous studies on the topic — however, those studies differed in how they were conducted, and their differences might have muddied the results, the team said. 

Although the new study didn't find that benzos boosted dementia risk, it did uncover physical brain changes tied to the drugs. The researchers looked at brain scans that were taken at least once from roughly 4,800 of the 5,443 participants. These scans showed changes in the volume of different structures in the brain over time. 

Based on these scans, the researchers concluded that benzodiazepine use was associated with an accelerated reduction in the volume of the hippocampus and amygdala. In other words, these structures shrunk faster in the group who took benzos, compared to the group who had not used the drugs. 

In addition to these changes in overall brain volume, the team uncovered differences in white matter, the brain tissue that contains the passageways that transmit signals between neurons. Participants who took benzodiazepines specifically for sleep issues — known as sedative-hypnotics — showed a faster reduction in white matter volume than those who took benzodiazepines for anxiety, called anxiolytics.

"Our results underline guidelines that say that you shouldn't take benzodiazepines for a very long period of time," Ilse vom Hofe, co-senior study author and a doctoral candidate at Erasmus University Medical Center in The Netherlands, told Live Science. "Also, I think it motivates health clinicians to look into other therapies to address the problems that people are experiencing, instead of just riding out the benzodiazepines."

The team acknowledged several limitations of the new study. For instance, they only looked at people who started out "cognitively healthy," so it's unclear whether benzos might have more or less profound impacts in people with cognitive impairment. Participants were also mainly white, which may limit how well the findings apply to additional groups. 

As they stand, though, the findings support the need for more research investigating the impact of long-term benzodiazepine use on brain health, the team said. 

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

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Scientists have identified six biologically distinct forms of depression, which could explain why some people don't respond to traditional treatments for the condition, such as antidepressants and talk therapy. 

In a new study, researchers analyzed brain scans of more than 800 patients who'd been diagnosed with depression and anxiety. These scans were taken as the patients were resting and while they were engaged in different tasks designed to test how their brains functioned. 

Specifically, the team compared the brains of the patients, looking for differences in the activity of specific regions and the connections between them. These brain "circuits" had previously been identified as being implicated in depression. They include the frontoparietal network, which is associated with goal-driven behavior, and the default mode network, which is tied to daydreaming. 

Using a type of artificial intelligence (AI) known as machine learning, the team was able to categorize the patients into specific groups based on their brain scans. Patients within each group differed in terms of their symptoms and their ability to complete certain tasks, the team found. They described their findings in a paper published Monday (June 17) in the journal Nature Medicine. 

For instance, patients who had high activity in regions of the brain associated with processing emotions were more likely to display feelings of anhedonia — the inability to experience pleasure — than other patients. They also performed worse than the others on tasks that assessed their executive function, or capacity to focus and manage activities. 

Related: 'Scent therapy' helps unlock memories in people with depression, trial finds

Despite being grouped under the same umbrella term of major depressive disorder (MDD), not everyone experiences depression in exactly the same way, Leanne Williams, co-senior study author and a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, told Live Science. 

To be officially diagnosed with MDD, a patient must have experienced at least five of nine possible symptoms of depression — such as depressed mood, insomnia and fatigue — for at least two weeks. However, this leaves a lot of possible symptom combinations. 

A better understanding of the biological reasons for a particular symptom of depression may help patients feel like they're understood and may help reduce any stigma associated with their condition, Williams said. 

In a separate analysis, the team found that three of the six subtypes that they'd identified showed signs that they were either more or less likely to respond to specific treatments. For example, patients who had high activity in cognitive regions of the brain responded better to an antidepressant called venlafaxine, commonly marketed under the brand name Effexor, than other subtypes did. 

This knowledge could be clinically useful, as up to a third of people with depression don't respond to any form of treatment. Meanwhile, it can take weeks or months to determine if antidepressants, for instance, will have an effect on a particular patient's symptoms. 

"To see that we can predict better outcomes on specific treatments really makes it [this work] really worthwhile," Williams said. 

This is an "extraordinary" study, Greg Siegle, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the research, told Live Science in an email. 

The idea that neuroimaging-derived subtypes of depression could have important clinical differences and potentially different treatment responses could be a critical step in moving towards personalized care, he said. 

The researchers now plan to test their approach on more people. They'd also like to look at the response of each subtype to other treatment options.  

The hope is that someday, doctors might be able to match patients to the type of treatment that is most likely to work for them based on their subtype, Williams said. 

British psychologist Kimberley Wilson has worked with people from all backgrounds following her years working as a therapist at London's Holloway Prison, which was Europe's largest women's prison at the time. But those formative years shaped the advice Wilson gives her clients and patients to this day.

During her time at Holloway, Wilson learned about surprising links between diet, mental health and behavior in the population she worked with. Those early findings were so promising they inspired the work Wilson has done over the past decade, as well as her two books: "How to Build a Healthy Brain" (Yellow Kite, 2020) and "Unprocessed: How the Food We Eat is Fueling our Mental Health Crisis" (Ebury Publishing, 2023).

In an interview with Live Science, Wilson described her journey from those early years to her current practice, emphasizing the links between mental health and nutrition.

Sascha Pare: You became interested in nutrition after training as a psychologist — how did food first pop up on your radar?

Related: How long does it take to digest food?

Kimberley Wilson: My first proper job when I qualified was in a prison working for a charity developing and offering therapy to prisoners. The thing about women at that time [between 2008 and 2013] — and I'm going to assume it's still the same — is that, although they only made up about 6% of the overall U.K. prison population, they accounted at the time for about 50% of the self-harm that was occurring across the entire U.K. prison estate. [Recent figures show that in 2022, women prisoners accounted for 29% of self-harm incidents while making up only 4% of the U.K. prison population. And between 2022 and 2023, rates of self-harm increased by 43% in female establishments.] 

It was around that time that this replication [in the Netherlands] of a [2002 U.K.] study came out. They had taken a cohort of violent male prisoners and improved their nutritional status through supplementation [capsules containing vitamins, minerals and fatty acids]. They found that objective incidence of violence — and I say objective, so not like "How are you feeling? Do you want to punch anyone today?" but actually going through the log book at the end of the wing and counting how many infractions had happened — were 30% lower in the supplemented group compared to the placebo group.

That was just extraordinary to me. I was already working in prison, I was already thinking about safety and harm — and here was this good quality, gold standard research demonstrating that a safe, accessible, low-risk, low-cost intervention could meaningfully improve not just the wellbeing of the prisoners, but also the staff.

SP: That sounds very promising. How did this new information sit with how you were trained as a psychologist?

KW: This raised really interesting questions as a psychologist as to actually how much of my patients' behavior is within their grasp and how much is it being influenced by things that they are completely unaware of. I just found it a fascinating area and also one that was really relevant to the work I was trying to do.

SP: And how was the new information received by your peers and colleagues? Did you implement any nutritional changes during your time working at the prison?

Related: Why do we crave comfort food? 

KW: I tried to speak to the governor [warden] and head of health care to tell them about this and to see if we could do a small trial, or if we could take our riskiest women and offer them a supplement. But I got no response whatsoever: it was just crickets. It's really interesting how unwilling people are to engage with that question. Since then, we have had two more replications of that data, so we've got four now — in the U.S., U.K., the Netherlands and Singapore — showing the same thing: When you improve nutrition, you reduce violence.

SP: So, you were convinced by the data that was coming out, even if some of your colleagues weren't. Fast forward a few years: You left your forensic work at the prison and opened a private practice in central London. How did you begin to integrate nutrition into your therapy work?

KW: I did my master's in nutrition and looked specifically at the role of nutrition in brain health, so I was looking specifically at brain health and neurodegeneration, and then within that I was thinking about how — broadly — a healthy brain improves mental health outcomes. That's when I started to think about nutrition with my clients and patients. 

SP: Do you think that interest in the kind of work you do — more holistic therapy that integrates lifestyle factors — has increased in recent years?

KW: There's certainly been more conversations about it, and that's also come with more skepticism, which I think is important, but I think there is a much broader appreciation certainly on social media. Could the brain be associated with the body in some way, and could the quality and status of your nutrition be playing a role in your neurological or psychological symptoms? I think those are really important questions — that reintegration of the brain into the body is absolutely crucial, I think, for the future of mental health treatment and research.

SP: The gut-brain axis immediately comes to mind here, but is there any more recent research demonstrating links between nutrition and brain health?

KW: When we look at maternal diet and brain health outcomes in offspring, yes, there's a very clear association. For example, we know without any hesitation that iodine insufficiency is the leading cause of preventable brain damage in the world and leads to permanently suppressed IQ. Similarly, we know that the higher the maternal intake of omega-3, the larger the baby's overall brain volume and connectivity. [These studies are small, observational and were not designed to show that higher omega-3 intake caused higher brain volume.]

In terms of broader dietary intakes, that data is kind of coming in now. First of all, a diet that's high in ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is lower in nutrients. We see that across the world, and the issue for the brain with that relationship is that the brain is the hungriest organ in the body. It has a huge nutrient demand and so the concern is, if we have a population of both adults and children that have a high proportional intake of UPF, are their brains getting what they need to function well? The likelihood is no. 

People who have higher UPF [intake] have increased incidence of depression and anxiety, and increased risk of depression and common mental health conditions later on. They also have faster cognitive decline and greater overall dementia risk. 

[High UPF intake is tied to other major factors that impact people's health — for example, people with low incomes who face food insecurity and receive government food benefits often consume more processed foods, and they are thus facing additional stressors beyond the foods they eat.]  

SP: How do you pass that information on to your clients and patients?

KW: I just try to present the evidence: "The evidence suggests to us that just getting a few more fruits and vegetables into your diet will help you feel a little bit better. Is this something you'd be willing to try?" [Studies showing the impacts of fruit and vegetable intake on mood are largely observational.] 

For some people nutrition might be a significant influence on how they're feeling, but for other people it's really not, and so you can just give it a bash for a while and see.

SP: You also do a lot of science communication work on your social media platforms. Do you communicate differently online, maybe in a way that's more prescriptive? (I must confess I've had a stalk of your Instagram.)

KW: The ironic thing about social media is that people are looking for you to tell them what to do, whereas I'm just kind of like: "Here's some information, do with it what you like." I think it's important for people to have that information, but it's not a command.

Kimberley Wilson will be co-hosting a talk called "Gut Feelings" at this year's Cheltenham Science Festival, which will run from June 4 to 9. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

A new app that delivers a specialized form of talk therapy to users might help people cope with tinnitus, a small study shows.

Tinnitus, or persistent ringing in the ears, does not have a single cause, but it is often related to hearing loss; a recent study suggests the condition may stem from hard-to-detect nerve damage. Tinnitus can sometimes go away on its own over time, but in other cases, it worsens, with chronic cases lasting three months or longer. Various treatments can help people manage the condition, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a specialized form of talk therapy that focuses on identifying and changing distorted thought patterns and their associated behaviors. 

In the new study, published Jan. 9 in the journal Frontiers in Audiology and Otology, researchers tested whether 28 people with tinnitus would respond to a form of CBT delivered via a chatbot-based app called MindEar. In some cases, the chatbot therapy was also paired with virtual sessions with a trained psychologist. With or without the psychologist, the participants saw noticeable improvement after using the app.

Previous research has "laid the groundwork to say yes, CBT is very good," Fatima Husain, a professor of speech and hearing science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who was not involved in the study, told Live Science. Now, this study is "leveraging technology to make it even more readily available and cost effective," she said.

Related: 1 billion teens and young adults risk hearing loss from listening devices 

CBT does not change the sound of ringing that people with tinnitus experience, but it can help them adjust to and learn to live with the noise.

Not everyone with tinnitus is bothered by the ringing, but about 20% of those affected are distressed by the noise, Husain told Live Science. This leads to anxiety, depression and attention problems. In-person CBT can be expensive and difficult to access, but an app like MindEar could potentially reach more people, she said. 

In the new study, half of the participants received CBT treatment through the chatbot alone for eight weeks, while the other half also had online sessions with a clinical psychologist. 

The participants also took several tests before, immediately after, and then two months after the treatment to evaluate their levels of distress, depression and anxiety related to their tinnitus.

Both treatment groups had a notable reduction in distress related to tinnitus, according to the survey they used, known as the tinnitus functional index. Immediately after treatment, the chatbot-only group had a 46% reduction in this measure, while the hybrid group had a 64% reduction. At the two-month follow-up, both groups saw a 64% reduction. 

Although the participants indicated that the treatment didn't change their perception of the ringing, they reported that it helped them relax, maintain a sense of control, and sleep better.

Husain said she sees potential in apps like this to be even more accessible in their design. For instance, they could be translated into different languages, she suggested.

An obvious limitation of the study is its small size, Husain noted. She said she views the research as preliminary and a larger trial with hundreds of people should follow. 

In addition, the authors noted that the study didn't have a control group that didn't receive treatment, as a point of comparison. In addition, the participants had mostly mild symptoms of anxiety and depression, making it difficult to say if this treatment would work well for people with more severe levels of distress.

Future studies might include brain scans along with the surveys the researchers used, Husain said. As a researcher who uses neuroimaging in her work, Husain said it might provide insight into how tinnitus and its treatment affect the brain.

"What I would like to see is what happens in the brain as [the treatment is] happening," she said.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

Ever wonder why some people build muscle more easily than others or why freckles come out in the sun? Send us your questions about how the human body works to community@livescience.com with the subject line "Health Desk Q," and you may see your question answered on the website! 

Extreme mood changes associated with Alzheimer's disease may be partially driven by brain inflammation, new research suggests. 

Historically, the prevailing theory for what causes Alzheimer's disease was that a gradual buildup of abnormal proteins called amyloid-beta and tau in the brain triggers a cascade of events, leading to nerve damage, the death of brain cells, and symptoms of cognitive decline and mood problems. 

However, emerging evidence suggests that inflammation in the brain may also be involved in the development of the disease. Specific culprits include immune cells called microglia, which normally promote inflammation in response to injury or disease. Activated microglia have been found to interact with amyloid-beta and tau proteins and may influence the progression of Alzheimer's disease. 

And now, in a study published Nov. 27 in the journal JAMA Network Open, scientists have provided what they say is the first strong evidence that the neuropsychiatric symptoms of Alzheimer's are directly associated with microglia activation. 

Better understanding the role inflammation plays in the development of Alzheimer's could take us one step closer to developing more targeted treatments for the disease, the researchers say. 

Related: Gene variant carried by 1 in 5 people may guard against Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, massive study finds

"Neuropsychiatric symptoms such as irritability, agitation, anxiety and depression are among the most difficult symptoms to treat in patients with Alzheimer's," Dr. Cristiano Aguzzoli, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, said in a statement. 

"Here, we show for the first time that brain inflammation may be to blame for these symptoms," he said. 

In the new study, the authors recruited 70 people who had no symptoms of cognitive decline and 39 who were cognitively impaired, either displaying early signs of memory loss known as mild cognitive impairment or dementia caused by Alzheimer's. The participants ranged from age 38 to 87. 

The authors assessed whether the participants displayed any of the mood problems that are characteristic of Alzheimer's. The researchers also scanned the participants' brains to look for signs of microglial activation, as well as the accumulation of amyloid-beta and tau proteins. 

People with cognitive impairment were more likely to have amyloid-beta and tau proteins in their brains. For example, amyloid-beta was found in 79% of those with cognitive impairment compared to 30% without. 

However, even after taking these factors into account, the participants with more severe neuropsychiatric symptoms had a greater level of microglial activation and more substantial signs of inflammation than the participants with milder symptoms. This inflammation specifically affected three regions of the outer layer of the brain. Of the mood symptoms, irritability was most strongly associated with microglial activation, followed by nighttime disturbances and agitation. 

The authors didn't directly compare whether participants' protein buildup was more or less strongly associated with mood problems than their inflammation levels. So they couldn't determine whether one factor is more influential than the other. However, the researchers think it's possible that both are playing a role. 

In addition to conducting these tests, the researchers asked the caregivers of the patients with cognitive decline to fill out a questionnaire about their experiences. They found that the caregivers were more likely to report distress when looking after participants with greater levels of brain inflammation, particularly when it was linked to symptoms of irritability. Caregivers were also more likely to report that patients experienced rapid mood swings when the patients had high inflammation levels. 

Going forward, the authors want to conduct more studies with larger groups of patients, including those who are at later stages of the disease and experience more extreme neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions. This would assess whether the team's findings are more generalizable to the wider population of people with Alzheimer's. 

In the meantime, they hope this research will act as a springboard for developing new therapies for Alzheimer's and possibly other types of dementia. 

"Since both neuroinflammation and neuropsychological abnormalities are found in several other types of dementia, including Parkinson’s dementia, we are collaborating with scientists around the world to expand these findings to these other diseases," Dr. Tharick Pascoal, co-senior study author and an associate professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Pittsburgh, said in the statement. 

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

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It's a familiar feeling: Before a test, a first date, or a public speaking engagement, your stomach starts to "flutter" as if butterflies were flying around inside your gut. Stomach sensations are a common side effect of being nervous, and they may also manifest as a feeling of a "knot" or even as more severe digestive symptoms.

But where do these feelings actually come from?

It turns out, a "nervous stomach" is one of the best examples of the two-way connection between the digestive system and the nervous system.

"From the earliest stages of embryonic development, the brain, spinal cord and digestive tract are all tightly wired to each other," Melissa Hunt, a clinical psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, told Live Science in an email. "Millions of neurons send information from the gut back to the brain, and just as many neurons send signals back to the gut."

This link is often referred to as the gut-brain axis. It's modulated by hormones and neurotransmitters — chemical messengers that respectively have broad effects via the bloodstream or act locally between nerve cells. It is also controlled by direct nerve connections between the brain and gut? and even by bacteria, and it's one reason your mood can so often affect the rest of your body, and vice versa.

"When we feel "butterflies" in our stomach, it's a vivid reminder that our emotions are deeply embodied," John Cryan, a professor of anatomy and neuroscience at University College Cork in Ireland, told Live Science in an email. "Ultimately, butterflies in the stomach illustrate the gut-brain axis in action: a continuous, bidirectional conversation between the central nervous system and the gut through neural, hormonal, and microbial pathways."

How the gut-brain axis creates butterflies in your stomach

The nerve cells that line the gastrointestinal tract are part of the "autonomic" nervous system, which regulates involuntary bodily functions, such as breathing, heartbeat and digestion. When food enters the gut, for example, its resident nerve cells prompt muscle cells to contract and push the food through the intestines, according to Harvard Health.

The autonomic nervous system is divided into two branches: the parasympathetic nervous system and sympathetic nervous system. These systems, respectively nicknamed the "rest and digest" and "fight or flight" systems, balance each other out. In general, the parasympathetic nervous system relaxes the body, while the sympathetic nervous system bolsters its response to danger.

When you're feeling anxious, the fight-or-flight response is activated. In this state, the body releases stress-related hormones, such as cortisol, that suppress digestion processes in the stomach and small intestine; meanwhile, other hormones actually stimulate the large intestine. These simultaneous changes cause muscle contractions that can feel like "butterflies" in the stomach, and they can also cause more severe digestive distress, such as nausea, bloating, constipation or diarrhea.

While these feelings often seem like an annoyance or inconvenience today, they may have once played a pivotal role in human life.

"From an evolutionary standpoint, this reaction likely helped our ancestors survive," Cryan explained. "Shutting down digestion and diverting resources toward immediate physical readiness would have improved chances of escape or confrontation. The gut sensations that accompanied these shifts also served as internal cues, highlighting moments of high importance or uncertainty."

You may have heard that the microbiome — the community of microorganisms that live in and on our bodies — plays a big role in the gut-brain axis. And that holds true for the sensation of a nervous stomach, too.

"Although the gut microbiome doesn't cause the flutter directly, it helps shape how strongly we experience and recover from such sensations," Cryan said. The bacteria in our guts may secrete substances that influence gut-brain signaling, and this, in turn, could affect how strongly someone feels a fluttery stomach.

"A healthy, diverse microbiome may buffer overactive stress responses, while alterations in microbiome composition can heighten them," Cryan suggested. The interactions between the microbiome and the gut-brain axis are still a relatively new area of research, and scientists are still determining how specific microbes influence gut-brain signaling.

Two-way road

Just as stress can trigger a nervous stomach, frequent gastrointestinal (GI) problems can also cause stress, Harvard Health notes.

What's more, stress can increase the frequency or severity of symptoms in "disorders of gut-brain interaction," or DGBIs. This umbrella term covers GI conditions that cause significant symptoms and impact quality of life but don't always trigger clear, measurable changes in the digestive tract. These include conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), in which a variety of symptoms, such as abdominal pain, diarrhea or constipation, occur without a clear cause; or functional dyspepsia, which involves stomachaches that occur during or after eating, without a known cause.

DGBIs are thought to be characterized by ongoing disturbances in communication between the gut and the brain, as well as shifts in the gut microbiome and immune function, in some cases. Over time, people can become anxious and hypervigilant about their GI symptoms, Hunt noted.

"This leads to visceral hypersensitivity, which becomes a vicious feedback loop of anxious arousal, scanning the body for uncomfortable sensations, catastrophizing, amplification of those sensations, which increases anxiety and then leads to increased GI discomfort and distress," she said.

That's why behavioral therapy is sometimes incorporated into patients' treatment plans for DGBIs, to help break this cycle.

"Far from being 'just in your head,' emotional experiences are woven through your viscera," Cryan said. "Understanding this connection reminds us that mental and digestive health are inseparable."

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not damaged people's mental health on a wide scale, new research finds. 

Overall, people reported being about as prone to depression, anxiety and other mental health symptoms both before and during 2020, when SARS-CoV-2 first exploded. But why didn’t the pandemic have wide-reaching mental health impacts, given just how much it disrupted people’s lives?

In some ways, the results are unsurprising, experts told Live Science. 

Just as in past disasters, people showed they were resilient and could adapt to the threat of COVID-19, said Bruria Adini, head of the department of emergency management and disaster medicine at Tel Aviv University, who has tracked the impact of the pandemic over time in Israel but was not involved in the new analysis.

"Adversities do not cause most people over time to be incapacitated," Adini said. 

However, there were nuances in the results, with some groups, such as parents and sexual and gender minorities, faring worse than the general population, overall.

COVID's mental health impacts

The study, published March 8 in the British Medical Journal, analyzed 137 studies that looked at the same people's mental health before January 2020 and later in 2020, although one study revisited participants in 2021. In total, these studies included tens of thousands of people from at least 32 countries, most of which were middle-to-high income. 

The meta-analysis found no overall differences in the rate of self-reported depression or anxiety symptoms, or in general mental health symptoms, which can include things like fatigue or changes in appetite or sleep, in the population. Some subgroups, including women, parents, and sexual and gender minorities saw mental health declines, but these declines were relatively small, nothing like the "tsunami" of mental health problems some predicted. 

The findings triggered a wave of skepticism on social media, with users pointing out the ways they'd cracked up during the lockdown era of COVID-19. 

"I built my cat a mech suit out of cardboard," tweeted comedy writer Jesse McLaren, alongside photos of a nonplussed cat on top of a cardboard robot creation. Meanwhile quantum computing specialist Anna Hughes tweeted photos of her quarantine project of cooking "increasingly unsettling eggs." 

This genre of tweet inadvertently reveals part of what might be behind the apparent lack of mental health catastrophe: People are adaptable and find creative ways to cope and connect, even in trying situations. For that reason, some psychologists weren't surprised that the pandemic didn't trigger huge spikes in negative mental health symptoms. 

"People are considerably more resilient than is commonly assumed, so I did not anticipate substantial mental health effects," said Anthony Mancini, a clinical psychologist at Pace University who was not involved in the current study but who published similar findings in the journal Psychological Medicine in 2021. Lockdowns may have cut both ways on mental health, Mancini added. Although they ripped people from their daily routines and increased isolation, they also cut down on stressful day-to-day hassles like commuting. 

But there is more nuance to the findings. Both Mancini's work and the new study found variation in how people responded. Study coauthor Danielle Rice, a clinical psychologist at McMaster University in Canada and her colleagues found that there was a small-to-medium decline in general mental health and a small worsening of anxiety for parents after the pandemic began. Older adults, university students and sexual and gender minorities all experienced some small increases in depression symptoms. On the other hand, people who had existing mental health conditions saw some small improvements in general mental health and depression symptoms. 

Some of these findings make logical sense, Rice told Live Science. For instance, women are overrepresented in the healthcare field and thus may have experienced more work-related stressors in the early pandemic. Parents had to navigate school closures and childcare disruptions. 

But those results should also be taken with a grain of salt, because each subgroup was small enough that the estimates are uncertain, she said. And the meta-analysis included a limited set of studies, each with weaknesses, said Roxane Cohen Silver, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, who was not involved in the research.

"There are serious limitations in most of the research that they're including," Silver told Live Science.

Study limitations

Rice and her team selected studies that provided comparisons of mental health in the same people before and after the pandemic began. That's a valid choice, Silver said, but leaves out many studies that began after the pandemic started. Silver and her colleagues conducted nationally representative research in the U.S. that did show increases in acute stress and depressive symptoms in the early months of 2020. But those studies would not meet the criteria to be included in the new analysis, because they started in March.

While the studies may have had the advantage of pre- and post-pandemic measurements, they had other limitations. Most didn't capture a representative sample of society, and many participants in these studies didn’t answer follow-up surveys over time. Those drawbacks should temper the conclusions of the meta-analysis, Silver said. 

The studies were done around the world, with 38% focusing on Europe and Central Asia, 34% on East Asia and the Pacific region, 20% on North America and 8% on the rest of the globe. The vast majority, however, were done in upper- and middle-income nations, and 76% focused on adults, with most of the rest focusing on adolescents. Very few children under the age of 10 were included.

Rice and her colleagues focused on analyzing depression, anxiety, and general mental health symptoms because these were the most common questions asked in the studies they included. These symptoms are also important because they can indicate that a person might need clinical treatment, Rice said.

But people may have felt other things, such as loneliness, stress, or distress, that the surveys didn’t focus on. Silver's work suggests that the degree of mental health struggles people experienced had a lot to do with their personal experience of the pandemic. Those who lost a loved one to COVID-19, who had the disease themselves in early 2020, or who consumed a lot of COVID-related news coverage fared the worst, according to her research published in 2022 in the journal Health Psychology. 

Adini agreed that individual differences mattered a lot. Her studies have shown that people's stress, perceptions of threat, and mental health symptoms fluctuated over the first two years of the pandemic, and that it wasn't always the disease itself that caused the distress, but also economic and national security worries.

People who experience generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) exhibit excessive concern about multiple events or activities most days of the week. While it is not unusual for people to experience some stress as they go about their daily lives, GAD sufferers rarely get a break from their anxiety.

Although some of the symptoms and reactions may be similar to those of a phobia (an extreme, irrational fear), GAD is not a direct response to a specific situation or experience. Sufferers experience unease that casts a shadow over all of their activities.

While not nearly as intense as a panic attack, the unease lasts much longer and is a constant presence in the lives of patients, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

"It is just a constant feeling of dread," said Thelma Duffey, a professor and chairwoman of the Department of Counseling at the University of Texas at San Antonio, a licensed counselor and president-elect of the American Counseling Association. "Patients have a constant feeling of tension and anxiety that never goes away. They worry about things that have not yet even happened,” she told Live Science.

GAD affects about 6.8 million American adults and strikes twice as many women as men, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA).That translates to about 3.1%of the adult population suffering from the disorder, and about one-third of those cases can be classified as severe. 

Generalized anxiety disorder: Symptoms

Though people who suffer from GAD worry about the same things that other people do — relationships, money, health, work, etc. — they have a much higher level of worry that is nearly constant. The level of concern is not in sync with reality and is greatly magnified. Most people with GAD realize that their concerns are overblown, but they cannot seem to shake their anxiety, according to the NIMH.

Duffey said GAD patients are aware that their anxiety level is high compared to that of others, but they feel shame and embarrassment to address the problem. "They know better, but they can't help the negative thoughts," she said.

Both children and adults can develop GAD and symptoms can come on slowly, according to the Mayo Clinic. But in some instances, a major life event, such as a change in health, or a life transition such as a divorce, can trigger the onset of GAD, Duffey said.

"GAD patients have always been anxious to some degree, but an event such as a car accident, poor grades, relationship or work difficulties can enhance their anxiety," she said. 

The symptoms tend to ebb and flow but can be exacerbated during times of stress. What sets the worry of GAD sufferers apart from normal stress is that the worry is intrusive, excessive, debilitating and persistent — lasting for more than six months, according to the NIMH. 

“Physical symptoms of anxiety include a churning stomach, palpitations, nausea, rapid breathing and insomnia,” said Dr. Deborah Lee, a medical writer at Doctor Fox Online Pharmacy in England. 

Sleeplessness is another symptom of GAD, because people with the disorder often feel as if they can't stop their mind from racing, Duffey said. People with GAD can also be very indecisive or have a fear of making the wrong decision, can overthink and have difficulty concentrating or have the feeling that their minds are "going blank", she said.

Like those with panic disorder, GAD sufferers have difficulty with everyday tasks, the NIMH noted. However, people with GAD are not gripped by an overwhelming fear and are typically able to function. However, some may be unable to perform even routine tasks during times when their symptoms are the worst, according to the NIMH. 

Generalized anxiety disorder: Causes

GAD may run in families, although as with all mental health issues, the causes are typically a combination of biological and environmental factors, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

"It is likely due to a combination of stress and environmental factors that contribute to the expression of genes in individuals who are born with the risk/vulnerability to develop the condition," said Dr. Andrew Gilbert, a psychiatrist and medical director at the Hallowell Center in New York. "Since GAD can emerge in adolescence, there are some interesting developmental/pediatric studies suggesting that individuals born with particular temperaments and/or wiring in their brains may be more vulnerable to develop GAD."

An imbalance of naturally occurring brain chemicals — such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine — is often seen in people with GAD and could be an indicator of a propensity to develop the disorder, according to the Mayo Clinic. An imbalance of these chemicals, called neurotransmitters, can impact emotional stability and mental well-being. 

Enduring a trauma, especially during childhood, is also linked to GAD, according to the Mayo Clinic. Those who experienced abuse or trauma as a child, including witnessing a traumatic event, are at higher risk of developing generalized anxiety disorder. 

GAD and addiction

Those with anxiety disorders are two to three times more likely than the general population to abuse alcohol or other substances at some point in their lives, according to the ADAA. About 20% of Americans with an anxiety or mood disorder, such as depression, have an alcohol or other substance-abuse disorder, according to the ADAA.

GAD sufferers are cautioned to avoid alcohol and drug use, even nicotine and caffeine, which can increase anxiety, according to the Mayo Clinic. However, as quitting can also cause anxiety, it recommends seeing a doctor for a treatment program or support group that can help.

Generalized anxiety disorder: Treatment

GAD can be treated with psychotherapy, medication or both, according to the NIMH.

A type of psychotherapy called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a common method used to treat GAD and can be very helpful, according to the NIMH. This therapy teaches a patient new ways of thinking, behaving and reacting to situations.

"Numerous studies have found CBT effective treatment for GAD in children, adolescents and adults," Gilbert said. 

Many GAD sufferers also benefit from self-help and support groups, where they can share their challenges and discuss coping mechanisms, according to the ADAA. 

“Anxiety symptoms can be controlled using breathing techniques, as well as mindfulness and meditation,” said Lee. 

Various types of medications can also be useful for treating GAD, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), according to the FDA.

Duffey said that while medication can be helpful for some GAD patients, she advocates for treatment that emphasizes lifestyle factors, such as nutrition, exercise and establishing a routine. 

"I focus on knowledge, as knowledge is power and can provide a sense of hope and safety, as well as self-empowerment and self-acceptance," Duffey said. 

"Don’t give up on treatment too quickly. Both psychotherapy and medication can take some time to work, " the NIMH states. "A healthy lifestyle can also help combat anxiety. Make sure to get enough sleep and exercise, eat a healthy diet and turn to family and friends who you trust for support."

Additional resources:

• More information on anxiety disorders, from NIMH.
• What is Anxiety? From Anxiety.org
• Tips for dealing with anxiety, from ADAA.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice. 

Scientists have uncovered a mysterious network of brain connections that is linked to several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

This shared brain circuitry could help reveal why many patients who are diagnosed with one psychiatric illness also meet the criteria for a second. 

"Half of the people we treat meet criteria for more than one disorder," Dr. Joseph Taylor, clinical director of transcranial magnetic stimulation at the Brigham and Women's Hospital's Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics in Boston and first author of a study describing the discovery, told Live Science. The study, published Thursday (Jan. 12) in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, supports the idea that disorders that often occur together may stem from the same neurobiological roots. 

In total, the study identified six disorders — schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, addiction, OCD and anxiety — that share this underlying circuitry, and "we suspect that other psychiatric disorders may also be linked to the same network," said Taylor, who is also an associate psychiatrist at Brigham and Women's and an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. 

The newfound circuit is not one that's previously been identified or named by scientists, such as the so-called default mode network and salience network. Some "nodes" in the circuit have been linked to psychiatric disorders in the past, while others have not and are instead linked to key aspects of cognitive function, like selective attention and sensory processing, Taylor said. Unraveling how the circuit works could clarify how deficits in these functions might factor into various psychiatric illnesses and potentially make them likely to occur together.

Related: 'Universal language network' identified in the brain 

Crucially, "these data point to the need to consider this shared neurobiology at the circuit level rather than at the level of the individual brain region," said Deanna Barch, a professor of psychological and brain sciences, psychiatry and radiology at Washington University in St. Louis who was not involved in the study. In other words, scientists need to study the brain's wiring, not just the distinct brain structures that all those wires plug into, Barch told Live Science in an email.

To map out this complex wiring, the researchers first pulled data from more than 190 studies of gray matter differences between people with psychiatric disorders and people without psychiatric disorders. 

Named for its color, the brain's gray matter is made up of the bodies of brain cells, or neurons, and the uninsulated wiring that extends from those cells. (White matter, by contrast, appears white due to an insulating layer of fat that covers its nerve fibers.) Gray matter is found in the wrinkled outer surface of the brain, the cerebral cortex, as well as in some structures beneath the cortex.

The team pinpointed brain regions where gray matter had atrophied, or shrunk, in the context of psychiatric disorders. Two structures in the cerebral cortex — the anterior cingulate and the insula — cropped up often in these analyses, but in general, the patterns of atrophy were not consistent across the six disorders studied, the team found. 

But remarkably, the disorders still had something in common: the tangled network of wires that runs between all these pockets of atrophy in the brain. The team discovered this by placing all of the atrophied gray matter regions within a map of the brain's wiring, known as a "connectome"; a different research team previously constructed this connectome using brain scans from 1,000 people without psychiatric disorders. 

All of the atrophied regions hooked up to a common brain network. 

"Thus, even when the specific brain regions that show altered gray matter might differ across some disorders, they seem to link to a common circuit across disorders," Barch explained. Although the team identified this physical circuit, they haven't yet determined how signals within the circuit differ between disorders, she added. The question is, are all six disorders linked to similar functional changes within the circuit, as compared with people without psychiatric disorders?

The existing connectome does provide some hints as to how different nodes within the circuit relate to one another. For example, some linked brain regions coordinate activity, meaning when one becomes more active, the other does too, and vice versa; other regions show the opposite relationship, where one region gets quiet as the other lights up. 

Once scientists better understand the role of the circuit in different disorders, it may be possible for doctors to treat psychiatric symptoms by tuning activity in one part of the network, Taylor suggested. For example, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) — a noninvasive procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate neurons in the brain and has been approved as a treatment for depression, OCD and smoking cessation — could be used to this end.

"Right now, TMS is used for one disorder at a time," Taylor said. But the new study suggests that doctors could potentially identify new TMS targets that would treat multiple disorders at once, by either turning the volume up or down in one part of the circuit. 

"It gives you some idea of which direction to push or pull," Taylor said of the research. While TMS treatments for multiple disorders are still theoretical, both Taylor and Barch said such treatments could be possible in the future.

The cost of living is rising, creating new economic uncertainty on the tail end of a very uncertain two years. Experts say the result could be more mental strain, stress and anxiety.

Inflation in the U.K. hit a 30-year high in January, with consumer prices up 5.5% from the previous year. The U.S. saw consumer prices rise 7.5% year-over-year as of January, the biggest annual increase in 40 years.

In and of itself, inflation is not necessarily tied to declines in mental health. The impact on individuals depends heavily on their financial situations: For example, someone deeply in debt can benefit from inflation because each dollar they have to pay back is worth less, effectively shrinking their debt. But if that person's income doesn't rise along with inflation, they may end up in worse financial shape. And people whose incomes mostly go to necessities like food and gasoline — low-wage earners — tend to suffer most of all when inflation is high.

Related: 10 simple ways to ease anxiety and depression

The result of continuing inflation, then, could be to deepen economic inequality, a problem that existed well before the pandemic, said Lisa Strohschein, a sociologist at the University of Alberta who studies stress, family dynamics and health, including the effects of financial strain.

"Growing economic inequality has been a significant and long-term issue," Strohschein told Live Science. "And we now live in a world where the pandemic has made some people more wealthy than they already were, but for people who are at the bottom, they have never been more insecure."

The impacts of economics

Economic indicators don't occur in a vacuum, so linking a particular measure to mental health isn't always possible. But there are some things researchers know well. One is that economic inequality, or a large schism between haves and have-nots, is bad for a population's health, including mental health.

In a study published in the journal World Psychiatry in 2018, researchers reviewed 26 studies on income inequality around the world and found that two-thirds said that as income inequality rose, so did depression. A statistical re-analysis of 12 of those studies showed that people in highly inequitable societies were about 1.2 times more likely to experience depression compared with people in more equal societies. Unequal societies also have higher rates of schizophrenia, studies have found, perhaps because inequality decreases social cohesion and raises chronic stress for vulnerable people. 

Unemployment is also hugely damaging to individuals' mental health. The Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory, a psychological tool used to gauge how likely it is that someone experiences health impacts from stress, ranks losing a job as the eighth-most stressful life change that can happen to someone. Many different studies have found negative impacts of being unemployed, ranging from symptoms of anxiety and depression to low self-esteem and loss of well-being. In one 2009 paper in the Journal of Vocational Behavior, researchers describe how they re-analyzed data from more than 300 studies on unemployment and mental health; they found that 34% of people who were unemployed experienced psychological symptoms, compared with 15% of the employed. Blue-collar workers were hit the hardest.

Related: 10 energy-saving life hacks: How to save on electricity bills & more

Inflation is more complicated. For the low-earning households, the rising cost of goods is a source of insecurity. A recent Washington Post investigation looked at how inflation is hitting low-income Americans and found people struggling to afford basic groceries and other necessities. In contrast, the wealthiest segment of society has more of a financial cushion to absorb rising costs, as well as investments that tend to outperform inflation in the long run.

Financial strain hasn't been as big of a problem in the pandemic as labor market upheaval might suggest. People spent less and may have saved more, said Scott Schieman, a sociologist at the University of Toronto. But inflation will change that picture.

"Inflation will make the actual level of pay seem less adequate," Schieman told Live Science. "And for lower-earning households, that starts to make the anxiety and strain creep up."

Schieman's research involves long-running nationally representative surveys of American and Canadian workers. In the U.S. in January and February, he said, more than half of workers said they felt their job didn't pay them enough to make ends meet. That's part of a trend going back at least 20 years, he said. Feeling underpaid is linked to worse job satisfaction, he said, which may explain why workers are quitting their jobs in large numbers. For those who stay — or who can't find a better-paying position — the financial crunch can have emotional echoes.

"Feeling underpaid and having insufficient income from one's main job is a chronic source of stress that has links to anger and resentment," Schieman said. "That dampens positive views about other aspects of the job that might otherwise be seen as good things — like autonomy or challenge."

To stave off inflation, governments may raise interest rates, which puts a brake on borrowing and spending. This can have negative impacts on some subgroups, though. For example, a 2018 study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that people who are deeply in debt may struggle psychologically when interest rates rise. The heavily indebted have a higher rate of mental health problems than the general population. For this group, the research found, a 1% increase in interest rates can lead to a 2.6% increase in the risk of experiencing a psychiatric disorder.

Cumulative stress

Inflation has risen in the past, Strohschein said, and that hasn't always translated to major financial and mental strain. Wages often rise along with inflation, easing some of the stress for consumers, she said. But higher cost of living is just one stressor among many that people have experienced since the COVID-19 pandemic started. That means that many people are already at the end of their ropes.

"People can handle one stressful thing, but when [stressors] begin to accumulate, that's what puts people over the edge. It's that straw that broke the camel's back," Strohschein said.

In the U.K., wage growth is not currently keeping up with the pace of inflation, especially among frontline workers in education and health, The Guardian reported. Frontline workers are among those hit the hardest by the emotional strain of working outside the home and caring for others during the pandemic.

There is a psychological impact to inflation beyond its financial impact, Schieman said.

"Things just feel worse, there's a sense of uncertainty and a loss of control that goes with it," he said. "And there's a sense it could be worse down the road. All of these things dampen our sense of satisfaction and undermine emotional well-being."

This feeling of fear about the future may be hitting young people hard. Though older people are at a far higher risk of death from COVID-19, surveys suggest that younger people took the biggest psychological hit during the pandemic. Research conducted in the U.S. by psychologist Jean Twenge of San Diego State University found that in 2020, adults 18 to 44 saw the worst impacts on mental health, while adults over 60 were least affected psychologically, Live Science previously reported. Twenge speculated that younger people were affected more by business closures and job loss.

The youth mental health crisis has only continued. University students have missed opportunities for socialization and career networking due to pandemic precautions, Strohschein said, and many are feeling uncertain or even hopeless about their prospects.

"For young people, it's about the ways in which they make the transition to adulthood and their fears for their future," she said. These fears are likely well-grounded, she added, as the Great Recession of 2008 did have long-lasting impacts on Millennials, the generation that was launching into adulthood when that financial crisis hit. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Millennials delayed marriage and home buying due to high levels of student debt and high unemployment during the recession. A similar pattern could be seen in today's young adults, Strohschein said.

"The ways in which young people today are progressing through these really formative years and making decisions about what they will do with their lives, I think are going to be with us for a long, long time," she said.

Originally published on Live Science.

If you're feeling anxious or depressed because you can't afford to fuel up your car or buy groceries, you aren't alone. With the cost of living at an all-time high in the U.K., and individuals still reeling from pandemic lockdowns, who could blame you? Though you can't change the economy, there are simple actions you can take to stay sane and even boost your mental health. 

Dips in mental health for a variety of reasons have been stark across the globe. In Great Britain, 17% of adults reported experiencing depression in summer 2021, up from about 10% pre-pandemic. (In early 2021, the rate reached as high as 21%.) The U.S. has seen a similar disruption in mental health: According to statistics published in April 2021 in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the percentage of adults reporting symptoms of anxiety or depression in the U.S. rose from 36.5% to 41.5% between August 2020 and February 2021.

Anxiety and depression can seriously impact a person's well-being, and they should be taken seriously. If you are in the U.K. and struggling, help is available via the Shout Crisis Text Line (text "SHOUT" to 85258) or via Samaritans' free helpline at 116 123. The charity Mind offers guidance on how to find a therapist through the NHS or through charity organizations.

In the U.S., the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) runs a free 24/7 helpline in English and Spanish at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). SAMHSA also hosts a treatment locator at findtreatment.samhsa.gov. The American Psychological Association's Psychologist Locator is another resource for finding treatment, as is Psychology Today's Find a Therapist tool. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours a day at 800-273-8255.

That said, research shows that there are do-it-yourself strategies and lifestyle changes that can improve anxiety and depression symptoms. Here are 10 evidence-based ways to combat these common mental health problems so you can keep your mental health relatively intact even as the cost of living soars.

1. Go outside to reduce 'doom spiraling'

As far as a do-it-yourself mental health boost goes, getting outdoors is a great return on investment. Research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2015 found that walking outside for 90 minutes reduced rumination, which is a pattern of negative, repetitive thoughts. (A more colloquial term for rumination is "doom spiraling.") People who walked in nature also showed a decrease in activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex, which is part of the brain associated with emotion, compared to people who walked in a busy urban area, suggesting there's a unique benefit to natural space.

A 2015 meta-analysis of multiple studies on nature and mood, published in the Journal of Positive Psychology in 2015, found that time in nature is linked to a moderate increase in positive emotions, and a smaller but significant decrease in negative emotions. Outdoor time has also been linked to improved attention and mental flexibility, according to a 2019 review published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science.

2. Move your body

When you're feeling depressed, exercise may seem like the least appealing thing you could possibly do. But moving your body can benefit your mind, sometimes to a surprising extent. In a 2007 study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, people with major depression were randomly assigned to a group exercise program, home exercise, an antidepressant or a placebo pill for 16 weeks. At the end of the study, 45% of people in the group exercise classes and 40% of the home exercisers no longer met the criteria for major depressive disorder. This was statistically similar to the 47% rate of recovery seen in the antidepressant group. (Both exercise and antidepressants outperformed the placebo statistically, as 31% of placebo-takers recovered.)

Exercise may also ward off anxiety by training the brain not to panic when it experiences the physical symptoms of fear or worry, such as an elevated heart rate or rapid breathing, according to 2011 research published in Psychosomatic Medicine.

A large 2019 study published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry found that it doesn't matter what you do — any exercise was associated with better mental health compared with no exercise. The biggest benefits were seen in team sports, cycling, aerobics and gym activities. More wasn't necessarily better, either: The most benefits were seen at durations of about 45 minutes just three to five times a week.

(Check out these home workout ideas to help you get fit without breaking the bank or leaving your apartment.)

3. Practice meditation to activate emotional control

Decades of research suggest that meditation can have mental health benefits. For instance, meditation practices can activate brain networks associated with emotional control, according to a 2020 review in Frontiers in Biosciences. Meditation can also reduce blood pressure and the stress hormone cortisol, a 2017 review in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found. In a 2019 review published in the journal Psychological Medicine, mindfulness-based techniques appeared to edge out basic relaxation techniques in treating anxiety.

It's worth noting that, as with many therapeutic strategies, some people may experience negative side effects or even worsening symptoms with meditation. A 2020 study in the journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica found that 8.3% of people had negative experiences with meditation, usually in the form of worsening or new depressive or anxiety symptoms after meditation practices. If meditation feels bad, don't push it.

Related: The 8 benefits of yoga

4. Connect with others and break negative thought patterns

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted social lives, Americans were reporting high levels of loneliness. According to a survey commissioned by the health insurer Cigna, 61% of Americans reported feeling lonely in 2019. (Loneliness was measured by the UCLA Loneliness Scale, 20 questions designed to assess social isolation and feelings of loneliness.)

That's bad news for mental health, because loneliness is linked to depressive symptoms as well as a whole host of health problems, from poor sleep to poorer immune function to early death. Research does show that loneliness can be beaten back, though: Interventions such as support groups or increased opportunities for social interaction can help people make connections, according to a paper published in 2013 in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review, but there were even better results for programs that helped people build social skills and break negative thought patterns about socialization. Cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps unravel distorted thought patterns — such as the idea that surely everyone at that dinner party secretly hated you — was one promising intervention, that review found.

5. Stop doom-scrolling

Stop the doom-scrolling. In general, smartphone use is only slightly related to stress and anxiety, research has found, but certain types of screen time definitely take a toll on mental health. For example, in young people with high levels of "FOMO" (fear of missing out), stress can lead to overuse of smartphones, which, in turn, can lead to symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as sleep disruption, a 2021 study in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry found. The bottom line? If you're already stressed, turning to your phone for relief may backfire.

Related: These 5 social media habits are associated with depression

6. Hug someone

It's deceptively simple, but human touch can make people feel less lonely. In a study published in 2020 in the Nature Public Health Emergency Collection, researchers found that people in the U.K. — a "low contact" society — reported less neglect in their personal relationships if they had just been touched (a light rub on the back of one hand) compared with people who hadn't been touched. A study conducted during COVID-19 social restrictions found that those who had been deprived of intimate touch (meaning physical contact with a family member or romantic partner), reported the most anxiety and depression. The results appeared in September 2021 in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

7. Flex your gratitude muscles

When everything looks bleak, it's not easy to find a silver lining. But the very act of searching for that silver lining — practicing gratitude — can help make the world a brighter place. In one now-famous experiment, researchers asked participants to keep journals noting either daily hassles, things they were thankful for, or neutral life events. The participants also tracked their moods. People who listed things they were grateful for over a 21-day period reported more positive moods and fewer negative moods than those who listed neutral events. They also reported feeling more satisfied with their lives overall and more optimistic. Other studies have since found similar effects. For example, expressing gratitude within a relationship can boost people's happiness in that relationship, according to 2012 research. 

8. Just breathe

When the fight, fight or freeze response kicks in, the body automatically prepares for danger: Your heart rate rises, breathing quickens and the pupils dilate to bring in more light. When there's no actual danger to be found, though, these responses aren't particularly helpful. Sometimes breaking the physical cycle is the first step. One 2016 study found that practicing yogic breathing — deep, slow breaths, alternated with fast, stimulating breaths, could help reduce depressive symptoms in people who didn't respond well to antidepressants.

Deep, slow breathing can also help reduce anxiety by engaging the parasympathetic nervous system, according to a 2019 review in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. This is the portion of the nervous system that controls automatic processes. Known for its role in "resting and digesting," the parasympathetic nervous system calms the body and mind. 

(Check out our roundup of the best yoga mats to get started on your meditative breathing routine.)

9. Put sleep first

Depression, anxiety and sleep disturbances go hand-in-hand. Ruminating and worrying can make it hard to sleep; at the same time, lack of sleep can exacerbate anxiety and negative feelings. A 2020 study published in the journal Sleep found that when people slept poorly, they were more prone to anger the next day.

Lack of sleep, especially deep, non-rapid eye movement sleep, impairs the medial prefrontal cortex, part of the brain that is responsible for many of our self-referential thoughts and emotional processing, according to 2019 research in the journal Nature Human Behavior. Sleeplessness also disrupts the communication between this higher processing center and the limbic system, a network in the brain that controls fight-or-flight responses and other basic functions of survival.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends these tips for better sleep: Stick to a regular schedule, avoid electronic devices in bed, watch your caffeine intake and get some exercise during the day. 

10. Manage your health conditions

People with chronic health conditions have higher rates of depression than the general population. According to the Cleveland Clinic, an estimated one-third of people with a chronic condition also experience depression. With some conditions, rates are even higher. For example, 40% to 65% of people who have a heart attack experience depression. Experiencing pain can be a major factor in why people with chronic illness become depressed, according to 2021 research from China published in the journal BMC Psychiatry.

Chronic conditions can also limit people from doing the activities that bring them joy. For that reason, the National Institute of Mental Health advises sharing any symptoms of depression with a health care provider. Doctors may be able to adjust medications that can impact pain and mood, or recommend pharmaceutical treatments for depression that don't impact other medications a patient may be taking. 

Originally published on Live Science. 

Have you ever stood on a balcony, leaned over the edge and unexpectedly thought, "If I wanted to, I could just jump?" Or perhaps you've been at a cliff's edge, with the intention of doing nothing more than enjoying the view and fleetingly considered how easy it would be to simply step over the edge. This sudden, often unanticipated thought is usually nothing to be worried about, but it certainly warrants exploration. 

This feeling — which tends to be brief, entirely out of character and often involves thoughts of leaping from a high place or driving headfirst into an oncoming vehicle — is more widespread than you might think. In fact, it's so common, the French have a term for it: l'appel du vide. In English, this translates to "the call of the void." 

But even though many individuals — over half of people, two small studies suggest — have reportedly experienced the call of the void, it hasn't been studied widely. So, what do scientists know about the call of the void, which is also known as "the high place phenomenon"? And what has research revealed about it? 

Related: What do cult leaders have in common?

The first significant study on the phenomenon, published in 2012 in the Journal of Affective Disorders, surveyed 431 undergraduate students, and found that just over half of those who had never had suicidal thoughts had experienced aspects of the phenomenon at least once, whereas over 75% of lifetime suicide ideators, or people who have suicidal thoughts or ideas, reported experiencing the urge to jump from the window of a tall building or from a bridge. (The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 800-273-8255.)

The study showcased, for the first time, that there was not an exclusive link between suicidal ideation and experiencing sudden, unanticipated thoughts related to placing oneself in imminent danger. In effect, the study determined that there was a clear difference between an individual imagining the possibility of leaping from a high place and wanting to act on it.

Prior to undertaking the study, the researchers hypothesized that the call of the void could be a 'misinterpreted safety signal,' with those experiencing it potentially misreading the brain encouraging them to move away from danger — and the results seem to support this theory.

Moreover, individuals with higher self-reported anxiety levels were more likely to have felt the call than those with lower self-reported levels of anxiety. As a result, the study's lead researcher, Jennifer Hames, who did the research as a clinical psychologist at Florida State University and is now an assistant clinical professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame, concluded that, somewhat paradoxically, the call of the void could well be a person's subconscious attempting to encourage a greater appreciation of what it feels like to be alive, as opposed to wanting to lure someone to their demise. Indeed, the study seems to indicate that the call of the void could indicate that someone has a higher than average degree of sensitivity when it comes to experiencing and interpreting internal cues.

A more recent study, published in 2020 in the journal BMC Psychiatry, also investigated whether the call of the void was more prevalent in people with suicidal ideation than those with no suicidal ideation, as some people who reported feeling the call of the void were concerned it could signal something more troubling about their mental state. 

"In our outpatient clinic, people repeatedly presented themselves with the question of whether they were suicidal," study lead researcher Tobias Teismann, a faculty member in the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany, told Live Science in an email. "On the one hand, they were very attached to life, but on the other, they often felt the impulse to jump down somewhere or steer their car into oncoming traffic. I know the phenomenon myself, having felt it in my early 20s, so I knew studying it would be fascinating and clinically relevant."

Related: Can you recover repressed memories?

Teismann recruited 276 adults who filled in an online questionnaire, as well as 94 participants who were experiencing a "clinically-relevant fear of flying," meaning they had sought medical or psychological assistance in an attempt to overcome their phobia. Teismann looked at both groups to investigate "the prevalence of the phenomenon across both samples," he said.

The study found that those who had experienced suicidal thoughts were also likely to have felt the call of the void than those without suicidal ideation, but Teismann doesn't believe this reveals a link between experiencing the call and wanting to harm oneself. "The phenomenon is more often reported by people who react to body signals rather anxiously," he explained. In other words, people who experience shaking, light dizziness and/or muscle twitches are more likely to recall experiencing the phenomenon.

"It seems to be something known to many people regardless of suicidality and anxiety," Teismann said. "As such, it is normal, and not a sign of psychopathology."

Put another way, people shouldn't necessarily "interpret such experiences as an expression of a hidden death wish," the researchers wrote in the 2020 study.

Originally published on Live Science.

Does exercise help anxiety? With many people suffering from anxious thoughts these days, it has become a very common question. Exercise is a long-touted measure for helping to relieve the symptoms of mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, but is there any research to support its use? Simply put, yes – and we’ll explain why here.

According to the Elsevier Public Health and Emergency Collection journal, the rate of anxiety increased in the USA from 2008 to 2018. Medications can help with long term chronic anxiety. However, fewer than half (46.3%) of those feeling anxious seek medical help. 

Instead, a simple and accessible way to reduce the impact of anxiety is to do more physical activity. You don’t have to train for a marathon or join a soccer team (although both forms of exercise can be great). Anything from swimming in the open water, going for a long walk in the countryside or stretching on one of the best yoga mats can be great anxiety tips to help you feel more calm. 

Does exercise help anxiety?

Does exercise help anxiety? Work is ongoing to clarify exactly why exercise is so beneficial. However, there are four ways that psychologists and researchers have identified so far. These include distraction, changing our body’s response to stress, changing our brain’s response to stressors and working as a coping mechanism so that we perceive we’re better able to handle difficult situations.

Exercise provides distraction

A study published in the National Library of Medicine has found that exercise can distract you from rumination, which tends to be prevalent in those that experience anxiety. So does exercise help anxiety in this way? Rumination, the process of thinking deeply about something, can be helpful, but not when it is about something you have no control over. It can feel as if it’s taking up all your headspace and leaving you too fatigued or preoccupied to focus on the things that you might be able to do something about. 

Exercise can be a very simple distraction technique. It places your focus and attention elsewhere (as you have to focus on the course, ball or instructor), helping your brain move away from the state of threat that it felt it was under.

Exercise changes our physiology

When you spot a threat that you don’t believe you have the capability or capacity to handle (whether that’s a physical threat to your safety or a psychological threat to who you feel you are as a person), your amygdala (the part of the brain attuned to threat) sends chemicals around your body to prepare your response. This can boil down to three options: fight, flight or freeze. 

These chemicals increase our heart and respiratory rate, tighten some of our muscles, affect our digestive system and diminish our peripheral vision. Exercise can help to reduce the muscle tension, get your heart and breathing rate matching your body’s effort levels and widen your focus. This can be seen when athletes who have performance anxiety before a match hear the whistle to begin. As their muscles relax (tight muscles are a key symptom of anxiety: NHS) and they get into their rhythm they can start to focus on the activity and not the fear. 

Exercise changes our brains

Many of the studies seeking to identify the specific areas of the brain positively impacted by exercise have been run on rats as it is so tricky to track the impact of physical behaviors with human brains. This study in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that one potential reason that anxiety falls after exercise is that the movement creates changes in the hippocampus. This is the area of your brain that’s associated with learning, memory and anxiety regulation.

Exercise encourages good coping mechanisms

Another potential reason as to why exercise helps ease anxiety symptoms is because it has such a strong impact on our cognitive health, as suggested by this study in the Journal of Sport and Health Science. With good cognitive health we have higher levels of mental functioning, which involves how we process our thoughts, create memories, concentrate, problem solve, plan and be creative. Good mental functioning means we have much better coping mechanisms ready for when we have to confront stressors.

• Related: Five mental health benefits of exercise
• Related: What are the best supplements for anxiety?

Does exercise help anxiety: how to stick to a fitness routine

When we feel anxious, the thought of exercising might feel intimidating. In fact, a study in PLOS ONE has shown that those with anxiety are actually less likely to exercise. However, the changes that exercise makes to our brains and bodies can reduce anxiety, so it can be beneficial for those experiencing anxiety symptoms to find a way to physically move their body.

To do this, you can look at the work on motivation in the National Library of Medicine, led by researchers Richard Ryan and Edward Deci. This work suggests that in order to build intrinsic motivation (an internal love for something), three core areas need to be worked on; community, competency and autonomy.

To make a fitness routine stick, it’s recommended to pick a sport or type of exercise that you love or are genuinely excited to try. Then, try to develop a sense of belonging with others in the same sport or activity. Whether this is in person or online, being able to be honest, open and vulnerable with these people will help you continue the activity. 

Finally, to build competency, you need to focus on becoming really proficient. This will mean that there are fewer fears when you train, so you can feel confident with the moves you are making. 

When we’re doing something we feel competent in, passionate about and safe in doing, it’s much easier to stick to a fitness routine. Not only will this exercise help anxiety, but it will also genuinely help you enjoy the activity. 

Your pulse starts racing, your breathing speeds up, your body begins to tremble – if you experience anxiety, these symptoms are probably all too familiar to you. While we can all feel anxious from time to time, if you find yourself struggling with persistent or recurring feelings of worry, panic and stress, you may want to consult with your doctor. However, you may also find these seven anxiety tips helpful for coping with the symptoms of anxiety.

When anxiety sets in, it can be scary. In some cases, it can even be a debilitating condition, making it impossible to get on with your regular daily tasks. However, there are a few changes you can make to your lifestyle with anxiety tips to keep stress at bay. We spoke to experts about how aspects such as sleep, exercise and diet all play a huge role in regulating and managing anxiety. 

• Read more: Best yoga mats

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is defined as a feeling of worry, panic, or fear that can often manifest itself in physical symptoms like sweating, trembling, or breathlessness. These symptoms are a reaction to the stress hormone cortisol, and the fight or flight hormone adrenaline. 

As Yuko Nippoda, psychotherapist and spokesperson for the UK Council for Psychotherapy, told Live Science, anxiety can be a normal reaction in certain situations, but when anxiety begins to affect you more frequently it may be a sign of an anxiety disorder. An anxiety disorder is, in basic terms, a condition in which the brain incorrectly releases cortisol and adrenaline in "normal" situations that don't actually require a fight or flight response. 

According to the American Psychiatric Association, anxiety disorders affect almost 30% of adults during their lives, making them the most common mental health condition. 

7 anxiety tips

Whether you experience mild anxiety from time to time or you have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, you can relieve anxiety and reduce its impact on your life with a few simple changes to your lifestyle. Here are 7 anxiety tips to help you manage any stress and worry in your day–to–day life. 

1. Improve your sleep hygiene  

Poor sleep habits are closely linked to anxiety disorders. A 2007 study by the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine found that a 30 hour sleep deprivation could increase anxiety levels, while a 2020 study by the journal Nature found that getting a good night's sleep with periods of NREM sleep could dramatically improve anxiety the following day. 

Unfortunately, anxiety can lead to unhealthy sleep patterns and can even cause sleep disorders such as insomnia, as shown in this study in Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience. This means that if you suffer from anxiety, getting a good night's sleep might be easier said than done. 

Try improving your sleep hygiene to improve your chances of getting enough shut eye. As one 2003 study in Sleep Medicines Reviews showed, improving sleep hygiene can help to improve the quality and length of your sleep.

Try improving your sleep hygiene by:

• Putting away your screens an hour before sleep.
• Avoiding large meals before bed. 
• Creating a calm, clean, dark environment in your bedroom. 
• Using a relaxing scent such as lavender or chamomile. 
• Investing in good quality bedding. 

2. Get some exercise  

Exercise is often touted as a kind of magical cure-all for both physical and mental conditions. When it comes to anxiety, it's no different. Numerous studies have shown that exercise can reduce and relieve anxiety. A 2013 study in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry found that "exercise and regular activity positively impacts the pathophysiological processes of anxiety". 

As clinical psychologist Sopagna Braje told Live Science, "When you are exercising, you might initially produce more stress hormones but your body quickly adapts and you actually experience lower levels of stress hormones when you are engaged in physical activity. You are also producing more of different types of neurotransmitters associated with mood, anxiety, and stress responses." She added that exercise can also improve your sleep, which is another proven method of reducing anxiety.

• Read more: What does exercise do to your brain?

3. Clean up your diet 

What we eat can actually have a significant effect on how we feel, both physically and mentally. Studies have shown that having a balanced, healthy, natural diet plays a big role in our mental health. A 2019 study in the journal Nutrients, for instance, found that a diet of saturated fats and added sugars could lead to higher levels of anxiety. Meanwhile, a 2021 study in Frontiers in Psychiatry showed that artificial sweeteners and gluten could increase anxiety, while omega-3 fatty acids, turmeric, vitamin D and ketogenic diets could all contribute to reducing anxiety.

• Read more: What are the best supplements for anxiety?

 4. Cut back on alcohol and caffeine 

Alcohol and caffeine may seem like the perfect distraction or remedy to anxiety, but in reality, they have both been shown to make the symptoms of anxiety worse. One 2017 study by the Society for the Study of Addiction, for example, suggested that a reduction in alcohol consumption could improve the frequency and severity of anxiety, while a 1992 study from the journal JAMA Psychiatry demonstrated that caffeine caused an increase in sweating, blood pressure, and feelings of anxiety in people with generalized anxiety disorder.

Both alcohol and caffeine are addictive substances, so cutting back may seem tough – in fact, at the beginning, it may temporarily make you feel even more anxious. Make the transition easier by switching to herbal tea or hot water and lemon in the morning and a tasty mocktail in the evening. 

5. Find a mindfulness exercise that works for you 

While mindfulness is sometimes dismissed as a pseudo-science, studies such as this 2010 study at the American Psychological Association, have shown that meditation is a great way to reduce stress hormones and thereby manage anxiety. Mindfulness meditation is a practice that helps you regulate your breath, connect with your body, and calm the mind.

As Braje explained, "There are a lot of studies that support mindfulness meditation in improving stress management. Luckily, there are many apps which can help people who may struggle with meditation. Like exercise, people may have to do it in small doses, like 2 minutes, before working up to 10 or 15 minutes."

• Read more: Is yoga good for you?

6. Become familiar with your anxiety triggers

In some people, the symptoms of anxiety can crop up seemingly at random. In others, the triggers may be more easy to define. However, in just about everyone, there is usually a specific trigger that causes the feelings of anxiety. Identifying your triggers can help you to understand your anxiety and begin to manage it. 

Some triggers may be purely physiological. For instance, caffeine, hunger, or reactions to medications can cause anxiety. Other triggers can be external, such as money concerns, social situations, or even a specific individual. 

Nippoda suggested writing down your triggers. "People who are over-anxious do not even know what is causing the anxiety. If they write their worries down they can conceptualise what their anxiety is about and it might become easier to manage." After writing down your ‘worry list’, try scrunching up the paper and tossing it away. "This is a symbolic gesture that they do not have anything to do with the issues anymore and it can help them feel empowered," Nippoda said.

7. Speak to your doctor or a mental health professional 

It is possible to manage an anxiety disorder at home, but in most cases, it is recommended that you seek professional help, too. By speaking with a therapist, psychologist, or medical doctor, you'll be able to get a professional opinion on your anxiety disorder and pinpoint the best possible management methods for your unique case. 

As Floss Knight, psychotherapist and CEO of UK Therapy Guide, told Live Science, "Know that there are many experts out there who can help you and offer that essential support. Many people find that verbalising their feelings helps remove them from their head – and this space offers a chance to think about solutions.”

How stressed are you? Your earwax could hold the answer. 

A new method of collecting and analyzing earwax for levels of the stress hormone cortisol may be a simple and cheap way to track the mental health of people with depression and anxiety. 

Cortisol is a crucial hormone that spikes when a person is stressed and declines when they're relaxed. In the short-term, the hormone is responsible for the "fight or flight" response, so it's important for survival. But cortisol is often consistently elevated in people with depression and anxiety, and persistent high levels of cortisol can have negative effects on the immune system, blood pressure and other bodily functions. 

There are other disorders which involve abnormal cortisol, including Cushing's disease (caused by the overproduction of cortisol) and Addison's disease (caused by the underproduction of cortisol). People with Cushing's disease have abnormal fat deposits, weakened immune systems and brittle bones. People with Addison's disease have dangerously low blood pressure. 

Related: The 7 biggest mysteries of the human body

Tracking cortisol levels

There are a lot of ways to measure cortisol: in saliva, in blood, even in hair. But saliva and blood samples capture only a moment in time, and cortisol fluctuates significantly throughout the day. Even the experience of getting a needle stick to draw blood can increase stress, and thus cortisol levels. Hair samples can provide a snapshot of cortisol over several months instead of several minutes, but hair can be expensive to analyze — and some people don't have much of it. 

Andrés Herane-Vives, a lecturer at University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Institute of Psychiatry, and his colleagues instead turned to the ear. Earwax is stable and resistant to bacterial contamination, so it can be shipped to a laboratory easily for analysis. It also can hold a record of cortisol levels stretching over weeks.

But previous methods of harvesting earwax involved sticking a syringe into the ear and flushing it out with water, which can be slightly painful and stressful. So Herane-Vives and his colleagues developed a swab that, when used, would be no more stressful than a Q-tip. The swab has a shield around the handle, so that people can't stick it too far into their ear and damage their eardrum, and a sponge at the end to collect the wax. 

Collecting earwax

In a small pilot study, researchers collected blood, hair and earwax from 37 participants at two different time points. At each collection point, they sampled earwax using a syringe from one ear, and using the new self-swab method from the other. The researchers then compared the reliability of the cortisol measurements from the self-swab earwax with that of the other methods. 

They found that cortisol was more concentrated in earwax than in hair, making for easier analysis. Analyzing the self-swabbed earwax was also faster and more efficient than analyzing the earwax from the syringe, which had to be dried out before using. Finally, the earwax showed more consistency in cortisol levels compared with the other methods, which were more sensitive to fluctuations caused by things like recent alcohol consumption. Participants also said that self-swabbing was more comfortable than the syringe method. 

The researchers reported their findings Nov. 2 in the journal Heliyon. Herane-Vives is also starting a company called Trears to market the new method. In the future, he hopes that earwax could also be used to monitor other hormones. The researchers also need to follow up with studies of Asian individuals, who were left out of this pilot study because a significant number only produce dry, flaky earwax as opposed to wet, waxy earwax. 

"After this successful pilot study, if our device holds up to further scrutiny in larger trials, we hope to transform diagnostics and care for millions of people with depression or cortisol-related conditions such as Addison's disease and Cushing syndrome, and potentially numerous other conditions," he said in a statement.

Originally published in Live Science.

A zoo in Poland plans to test cannabidiol — also known as CBD, a chemical found in cannabis — on its elephants, for stress relief.

According to the BCC, the Warsaw Zoo's decision follows the March death of Erna, the elder elephant in the herd. Elephants are matriarchal, meaning older females lead the herd, so it's no surprise that the three younger elephants have shown signs of stress since her death. Zookeepers hope the CBD will help calm the tense animals; elephants get stressed out easily and are relatively easy for the zoo to keep an eye on, so they're good candidates for testing the substance, which is touted for its calming effect on humans, the zoo told BBC.

As Live Science previously reported, CBD is one of a range of chemicals found only in cannabis plants. But unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), marijuana's main psychoactive ingredient, CBD doesn't cause humans to get high

Related: 25 odd facts about marijuana 

CBD is an increasingly popular substance in the natural wellness industry, and there's anecdotal evidence to suggest it's effective for treating anxiety and other ailments. Proponents of the compound have hailed CBD's healing effects for a wide range of physical and mental illnesses, such as depression and cancer. However, due to U.S. laws regulating the production, use and testing of marijuana products, research on the effects of CBD is limited, although one clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2017 did find that CBD reduced seizures in people with Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy. As Live Science reported, some early studies have suggested that CBD may work to combat anxiety, and psychosis, while others indicated that it's no more effective than a placebo.

And, of course, all that research describes the effect of CBD on humans. No research yet exists to indicate how the cannabinoid will impact elephants, though CBD companies do make products targeting dogs and cats according to the American Kennel Club, and research into veterinary use of the substance is ongoing.

Moreover, scientists at Tarleton State University’s Equine Center in Texas are giving horses CBD to see whether the substance affects inflammation, stress and problematic behaviors in these animals, according to a statement from Texas A&M University. Results are expected to come out as soon as next year.

The plan at the Warsaw Zoo is to first treat Fredzia, a younger elephant who had the strongest reaction to Erna's death, according to the BBC. Researchers at the zoo have already collected feces, saliva and blood from the animals to measure their levels of cortisol, a chemical associated with stress, before the CBD trial. Scientists will keep monitoring cortisol levels in the elephants as they feed Fredzia — and eventually the other elephants — the cannabinoid, the BBC reported

Originally published on Live Science.

When the novel coronavirus roared into the U.S., mental health took a back seat to physical health. The number one priority was making sure hospitals wouldn’t be overwhelmed and that as many lives as possible could be saved.

Schools closed, remote work became the norm, restaurants shuttered and getting together with friends was no longer possible. The news cycle spun with story after story highlighting the ever-increasing number of cases and deaths, while unemployment soared to levels not seen since the Great Depression.

Any one of these shifts could be expected to cause an increase in mental health issues. Put together, they created a a perfect storm for a crisis.

Experts speculated as much, and polls showed that many people seemed to intuitively grasp the mental toll of the pandemic. However, data on mental health metrics was scant; we didn’t know the magnitude of any changes in mental health issues, nor did we understand which groups of people were suffering more than others.

So I decided to collect data on mental health during the pandemic and compare it to data from before all of this happened. The differences were even worse than I anticipated.

A generational divide

On April 27, I surveyed 2,032 U.S. adults using a standard measure of mental distress that asks, for example, how often a respondent felt sad or nervous in the last month. I compared the responses with a sample of 19,330 demographically similar people in a 2018 government-sponsored survey of U.S. adults that asked the same questions.

The results were staggering: The 2020 participants were eight times as likely to screen positive for serious mental illness – 28%, compared to 3.4% in the 2018 survey. The vast majority of the 2020 participants, 70%, met criteria for moderate to serious mental illness, compared with 22% in 2018.

Clearly, the pandemic has had a devastating effect on mental health.

Yet some people are suffering more than others. Younger adults ages 18 to 44 – mostly iGen and millennials – have borne the brunt of the mental health effects. They’ve experienced a tenfold increase in serious mental distress compared with 2018. Meanwhile, adults 60 and older had the smallest increases in serious mental health issues.

Why might this be the case? After all, the virus has far more dire health implications for older people.

It could be because older people are more protected from the economic disruptions of the pandemic. Younger adults were more likely to lose their jobs as restaurants and stores closed and were more likely to be in a precarious financial position to begin with. The youngest adults were also already struggling with mental health issues: Depression among 18- to 25-year-olds surged from 2012 to 2017, possibly because young adults spent less time interacting with others in person than they used to, a situation only exacerbated by the pandemic.

Parents under pressure

The other group in distress won’t be a surprise to parents: those with children under 18 at home. With schools and daycares closed during the pandemic, many parents are trying to do the near-impossible by working and supervising their children at the same time. Sports, scouting, music classes, camps and virtually every other activity parents rely on to keep their kids occupied have been canceled. Even parks were closed for weeks.

This trend didn’t occur just because people with children at home are younger. Even among 18- to 44-year-olds, those with children at home showed larger increases in mental distress than those without kids.

In 2018, parents were actually less likely to be experiencing mental distress than those without children. But by the end of April 2020, parents were more likely to be in distress than their childless peers.

Where do we go from here?

The findings of this study are preliminary. The 2020 and 2018 samples, though very similar in age, gender, race and region, came from different sources and thus might differ in other ways.

However, there are also other indications that mental health is suffering during the pandemic. For example, calls to mental health hotlines appear to have surged.

This doesn’t necessarily mean we should open up the economy to preserve mental health. The resulting spike in illness and death from COVID-19 could be even worse for mental health, and workers required to return to their jobs may rightly worry about catching the virus.

It does mean policymakers need to be prepared for a potentially unprecedented number of Americans needing mental health services. Just as hospitals risked running out of ventilators during a surge of COVID-19 patients, the mental health care system might be quickly overwhelmed.

The survey also shows just how widespread the impact of the pandemic has been, and just how many people are suffering. If you have been feeling sad about everything that’s been lost – and nervous about the uncertainty of what comes next – you are not alone.

[You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help. Read The Conversation’s newsletter.]

•   The 12 deadliest viruses on Earth  
•   20 of the worst epidemics and pandemics in history  
•   13 Coronavirus myths busted by science  

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

People may smoke weed to "mellow out," but experts say medicinal cannabis and its chemical relatives don’t effectively relieve mental health disorders like depression or anxiety. The evidence just isn't there. 

That's according to the most comprehensive analysis of medical cannabinoids and mental health to date.

Cannabinoids, which include any chemical derived from the Cannabis plant that exerts drug-like effects in the body, "are often advocated as a treatment for various mental health conditions," according to the new analysis, published today (Oct. 28) in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry. Despite the hype, little evidence supports the notion that medicinal cannabinoids treat mental health disorders more effectively than placebo pills — treatments designed to do nothing, study co-author Louisa Degenhardt, a professor of epidemiology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, said in a statement. 

Related: What Is Mental Health?

What little research does exist fails to meet standard criteria required to prove that a given drug is safe and effective for widespread use, the authors noted. "Clinicians and consumers need to be aware of the low quality and quantity of evidence for the effectiveness of medicinal cannabinoids in treating mental health disorders and the potential risk of adverse events," they wrote. 

Products like medicinal cannabis, pharmaceutical-grade extracts and the synthetic derivatives THC and CBD have gained popularity among consumers as more countries begin legalizing their use for the treatment of medical conditions, according to the new paper. (CBD is a compound derived from marijuana that does not produce a "high.") Both mainstream media and the commercial sector have hopped on the bandwagon, spreading the word about the many potential therapeutic uses of cannabinoids. The mounting trend may be ahead of the science, though, as Degenhardt and her co-authors found.  

The new analysis pooled data from 83 studies aimed at learning whether medicinal cannabinoids can improve mental health disorders, overall, or alleviate their various symptoms. Of these, most examined the effects of THC, with or without added CBD, and only 40 studies were randomized controlled trials — the "gold standard" for drug testing wherein participants are randomly assigned to either receive the treatment or not. The research included about 3,000 people and focused on six mental health disorders: depression, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychosis.

Overall, the results left experts unimpressed. 

THC failed to meaningfully improve the major symptoms of any of the six disorders, and many patients on the drug experienced more adverse effects and withdrawal symptoms compared with those who took a placebo. Of the randomized controlled trials that looked at depression and anxiety, most prescribed a cannabinoid for a different health condition entirely, such as chronic pain. Hardly any studies examined the effects of CBD or medicinal cannabis on the various disorders. Given the sheer scarcity of data and the poor quality of what little exists, "there remains insufficient evidence to provide guidance on the use of cannabinoids for treating mental disorders within a regulatory framework," the authors concluded.

The study did uncover some "very-low-quality" evidence that suggests that THC, the main mind-altering compound found in cannabis, may help relieve anxiety symptoms in people with other serious health conditions, such as chronic pain or multiple sclerosis. However, in these cases, it's unclear whether the THC use improved symptoms directly, or if the drug primarily improved patients' underlying health problems, and their anxiety improved as a result. 

Singular studies also suggested that pharmaceutical products that contain both THC and CBD may improve overall functioning in people with PTSD, while pharmaceutical CBD alone may do the same for patients with psychosis. But neither drug appeared to alleviate the major symptoms of either disorder, and one study even suggested that THC-CBD may worsen the negative symptoms of psychosis, such as social withdrawal and blunted emotions. 

Dr. Scott Krakower, assistant unit chief of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science that the idea that cannabis may worsen certain mental health disorders is well-established. "This is especially true of people with preexisting psychotic conditions," he added, while those with a family history of psychosis could place themselves at risk of developing the disorder by taking cannabinoids. 

Related: 9 Celebrities Who Spoke Up about Depression

In addition, research suggests that repeated or heavy cannabis use can permanently disrupt the body's natural "endocannabinoid system," which produces chemicals that bind to the same receptors as cannabinoids do, though how this disruption affects people with different mental health disorders remains under investigation. Anecdotally, the drugs appear to have a "paradoxical effect" where they help people feel better in the short term, but worsen their symptoms over time, Krakower said. For example, recent research suggests that cannabis may reduce ratings of stress, depression, and anxiety, at first, but chronic use may worsen depressive symptoms over time.    

"In light of the results of this comprehensive review and meta-analysis, it would be hard for practitioners to justify recommending the use of cannabinoids for psychiatric conditions at this time," Dr. Deepak Cyril D'Souza, a professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, wrote in a commentary accompanying  the new study. D'Souza noted that research on cannabinoids may be lacking because the drugs have long been under tight governmental regulation. To better understand the potential role of cannabinoids in mental health treatment, existing "barriers to research" will have to be toppled.    

Looking forward, scientists will need to determine exactly how cannabinoids ease the symptoms of mental health disorders, assuming they do at all, D'Souza added. "From a mechanistic standpoint, it is uncertain how or why cannabinoids could be effective in treating depression, ADHD, psychosis, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder — conditions that share no obvious common pathophysiology," he wrote.

In short, the experts agree: medicinal cannabinoids should be subjected to the same rigorous scrutiny of every other psychiatric medication.   

In the future, Krakower hopes that both the public and health care providers stay informed about the actual science of cannabinoid use and make decisions based on solid data, rather than hearsay. 

• 5 Controversial Mental Health Treatments 
• 7 Ways to Recognize Depression in 20-Somethings 
• 7 Ways Depression Differs in Men and Women 

Originally published on Live Science.

Does the sight of natural sponges, honeycomb cells or bubbly pancake batter make your skin crawl? You may be among thousands of people with trypophobia — an extreme aversion to clustered patterns of irregular holes or bumps. Viral images of lotus seed pods, pregnant Surinam toads and woodpeckers storing fruit in trees have triggered reactions from trypophobes online, and raised awareness of the condition. Though anecdotally widespread, the phobia is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), the diagnostic guide for mental disorders recognized by professional psychologists.

Causes and symptoms of trypophobia

Upon seeing a dimpled piece of coral, bubble-filled bathtub or even aerated chocolate, a person with trypophobia may become overcome with disgust or feel physically ill. They may feel their heart race, head pound or skin crawl. Sometimes, even a narrative description of a triggering visual can incite these symptoms, no picture needed. [Clowns or Holes: What Is Your State Most Afraid Of?] 

Most trypophobic people show disgust as their main symptom, which is uncommon in recognized phobias, where fear is more prevalent, according to a 2018 review in Frontiers of Psychiatry. Women appear more likely to develop trypophobia, and its most common comorbid diagnoses are major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder that can trigger symptoms of nausea, dizziness, heart palpitations, trembling and feelings of panic, according to the National Health Service. Phobias develop when people have an exaggerated sense of fear about a situation, place, feeling or object; this overwhelming reaction may stem from their own traumatic experiences or from responses they've picked up from observing others. The chances of developing a phobia depends on a person's genetic history.

"It is important to understand the underlying reasons for the individual's aversion to objects or images with small holes," psychologist Anthony Puliafico, assistant professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University, New York, told Live Science in an email. "If an individual is just 'grossed out' by pictures of small holes or patterns, but their aversion does not impair their functioning, this would not be a phobia."

In other words, a phobia must "significantly interfere with the person's normal routine," as stated in the DSM-5. Scientists remain dubious as to whether trypophobia meets this criterion, though more research may resolve that question.

Is trypophobia real?

The term "trypophobia" is thought to have originated on an online forum entitled "A Phobia of Holes." A user named Louise from Ireland consulted the Oxford Word and Language Service for help crafting the word, which translates to "fear of boring holes" in Greek.

The term came into popular usage in 2009, when a University of Albany student named Masai Andrews founded the website Trypophobia.com and a trypophobe support group on Facebook, according to Popular Science. As of today, the public group has over 13,600 members. A newer sister group, called "Trypophobia Triggers," acts as an archive of pockmarked, pitted images that send members' stomachs turning.

After an extended struggle, the trypophobe community secured a Wikipedia page describing the condition. Wikipedia editors had deleted an attempted page in 2009, stating that trypophobia was "likely hoax and borderline patent nonsense," the Washington Post reported. The fear has now secured pop culture fame and was even featured in the seventh season of the TV series "American Horror Story," as highlighted by BuzzFeed.

What the science says

Trypophobia first entered scientific literature in 2013, when researchers proposed that the condition stems from an innate aversion to dangerous animals. The scientists lit upon the idea when one of their study participants mentioned their fear of the blue-ringed octopus, a highly poisonous animal with bruise-colored spots. The researchers realized that many dangerous animals, such as the box jellyfish, inland taipan snake and poison dart frog, share similar visual features to trypophobia triggers; namely, their patterns are typically high-contrast and clustered, but not so close that they overlap.

Some scientists theorize that trypophobia is not a overgeneralized fear of animals, but of human disease. Many infectious diseases and parasites leave the skin riddled with spots and sores — think of smallpox, scarlet fever or botfly bites. A 2017 study suggested that this overlap may explain the nausea and "skin crawling" sensations conjured by the condition.

Other evidence suggests that trypophobia triggers simply provoke visual discomfort, and that some people are particularly sensitive to their effects, such as eyestrain and perceptual distortions. In addition, a 2016 study found that trypophobes tend to be highly empathetic and sensitive to disgusting stimuli. Ultimately, scientists still haven't pinned down the underlying cause of the condition.

How to cure trypophobia

Though it's not listed in the DSM5, trypophobia can cause disturbance in people's lives.

"As for any fear or aversion, if your symptoms are persistent and distressing or impairing, I would recommend consulting with a mental-health professional with expertise in exposure treatment," Puliafico said. In exposure treatment, a therapist guides an individual in gradually facing objects or situations that provoke fear or disgust. "There is growing evidence that specific phobias can be treated intensively, and in certain cases after just a single exposure session."

Additional Resources

• See if your skin crawls at the sight of Suriname sea toads giving birth, from National Geographic.
• Learn more about anxiety disorders and phobias in this video from Crash Course.
• Read more about what defines a phobia according to Harvard Medical School.

If Godzilla were a real creature, his incredibly rapid growth spurt on the big screen would be off the charts, even setting evolutionary records, a new report finds.

When the dinosaur-like monster debuted on the silver screen in 1954, he stood a towering 164 feet (50 meters) tall. Now, 35 films later — the latest, "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," came out Friday (May 31) — the behemoth has more than doubled in size, currently reaching 393 feet (120 m) tall. A new analysis of Godzilla's height even revealed that he has evolved 30 times faster than any real organism on Earth, the researchers wrote in the report.

So, what accounts for Godzilla's extreme growth? The researchers ruled out several ideas (more on that later) before landing on the existential dread experienced by humanity: Perhaps society's cultural anxiety has caused Godzilla to muscle up faster than an athlete on steroids, the researchers said. [Bigfoot, Nessie & the Kraken: Cryptozoology Quiz]

"We think cultural anxiety could be this agent of change on this metaphorical movie monster," report lead researcher Nathaniel Dominy, a professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, told Live Science.

Before landing on anxiety as an explanation, the researchers entertained, but later dismissed, other ideas. For instance, some movie buffs think that Godzilla is a ceratosaurid, a type of dinosaur that lived during the Jurassic period. But even though these dinosaurs evolved to have huge bodies, Godzilla's growth spurt far outpaces theirs, the researchers said. The monster's growth is also far too rapid to come from genetic drift, that is, when certain gene variants in a small population are randomly lost, diminishing genetic diversity, the researchers said.

Even natural selection, by which organisms with advantageous genes survive and then pass those genes on to their offspring, couldn't explain Godzilla's swift sprouting.

Instead, a look at Godzilla's history explains his accelerated growth, the researchers said. Godzilla was created, in part, because of nuclear-age fears following the use of the first atomic and hydrogen bombs in the 1940s and 1950s. In Godzilla's case, hydrogen-bomb testing decimated his deep-sea ecosystem in the first movie, and Godzilla exacted his revenge by destroying Tokyo.

To test the idea that anxiety fueled Godzilla's growth, the researchers used U.S. military spending as a proxy for the nation's collective anxiety. They found a strong correlation between this spending and Godzilla's body size from 1954 to 2019, which includes measurements from both Japanese and American movies.

Granted, correlation doesn't imply causation. And it is possible that another factor, such as people's appetite for big and scary monsters drove movie makers to grow Godzilla, to ensure box office success.

But if anxiety could explain Godzilla's growth spurt, it's not difficult to see why people are so anxious, said Dominy and co-researcher Ryan Calsbeek, an associate professor of biological sciences at Dartmouth. "Whether reacting to geopolitical instability, a perceived threat from terrorists or simply fear of 'the other,' many democracies are electing nationalist leaders, strengthening borders and bolstering their military presence around the world," the researchers wrote in the report.

Moreover, climate change, which is expected to affect sea-level rise, people's health, and water and food security, can make anxiety top the charts, the researchers said.

"[Godzilla] is this ever-useful metaphor for whatever kinds of existential threat we fear as a collective culture, whether it's nuclear bombs or climate change," Dominy said.

But there is hope, Dominy noted. "Godzilla's near invincibility almost always eventually leads humanity to the realization that they must work together to defeat it (except, of course, when the creature becomes an unlikely ally, but that is another story)," the researchers wrote in the report.

Perhaps society can learn from the Godzilla movies that "now is the time for cooperation — across countries, across disciplines and across party lines," the researchers wrote. "It is our only hope of mitigating the dire existential threats we face today."

The report was published online May 28 in the journal Science.

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Originally published on Live Science.

The fast-paced world we live in is a perfect driver of stress. The racing heart, knots in the stomach and vague sense of agitation are an unavoidable part of the human condition. But chronic stress can, over time, harm the body, causing everything from inflammation to cardiometabolic disease.

In some cases, stress may play a role in cancer. But just how tightly are these two conditions linked?

Studies suggest several ways that stress may influence cancer development, said Shelley Tworoger, an associate professor of population science at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. Tworoger spoke about these links during a talk earlier this month at the annual American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Atlanta. [7 Cancers You Can Ward Off With Exercise]

In those who already have certain types of cancer, stress can accelerate progression and worsen outcomes, increasing evidence suggests. But "there's more question" about whether or not chronic stress can cause cancer in the first place, Tworoger told Live Science.

Indeed, according to the National Cancer Institute, the evidence that stress can cause cancer is weak. Even so, "there's a lot of biologic reasons to think that an association could exist," Tworoger said. Here's what we know about chronic stress and the risk of cancer.

Stress and the body

Acute stress is completely normal and helps us react to dangerous situations. For instance, if a "lion is chasing you or you're almost in a car accident," the body's stress response makes your heart race, sharpens your vision and can thus help you survive, she said.

During a stressful situation, the body turns on two key pathways: the sympathetic nervous system, which triggers the fight or flight response, and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, which releases a key stress hormone called cortisol.

In the short term, these two axes "turn on, help you get through whatever the situation was and then, usually when the stress abates, they turn back off again," Tworoger said.

But chronic stress and distress (extreme anxiety, sorrow or pain) continuously activate these pathways and release stress hormones, "in a way your body wasn't really designed for," Tworoger said.

Past research has shown that chronic activation of both of these pathways can lead to changes in the body — including altered metabolism, increased levels of certain hormones and the shortening of telomeres, the caps at the ends of DNA that prevent damage. All of these changes could potentially influence the development and progression of cancer, she said during the talk.

The long-term release of stress hormones can also induce DNA damage and affect DNA repair, said Melanie Flint, a senior lecturer in immunopharmacology at the University of Brighton in the United Kingdom, who also spoke during the talk.

What's more, chronic stress weakens the immune system. Since the immune system acts as the cleaning crew that destroys and mops up damaged cells with genetic or metabolic errors, a weakened immune system could be the doorway in for cancer cells, Toworoger said.

There is "growing evidence that chronic stress can affect the cancer risk and progression through immune dysregulation," said Dr. Elisa Bandera, a professor and chief of Cancer Epidemiology and Health Outcomes at the Rutgers Cancer Institute in New Jersey, who wasn't a part of the talk. But "I don't think you can say that there is an established link."

In fact, most evidence ties stress to cancer survival, not to the risk of getting cancer in the first place, she said.

Stress and cancer risk

It's tricky to design a study to show that stress fuels cancer in part because the experience of stress is so subjective and hard to measure. Stress can also manifest itself in the body in very different ways depending on how an individual perceives and copes with it, Toworoger said

"Some people have a negative response to job stress and some people love being stressed out in their jobs," Tworoger said. In fact, "they thrive on it." This perception, in turn, affects how the body responds.

As a result, many human studies rely on associations — rather than cause and effect— to show a link between stress levels and cancer incidence.

Previous studies have suggested, for example, that chronic stress is associated with an increased risk of a number of cancers, including breast cancer and some gastrointestinal cancers.

A Japanese study published in 2017 in the journal Scientific Reports looked at the correlation between stress levels and cancer in more than 100,000 people. They found no association between short-term stress and cancer incidence, but found that individuals, specifically men, who consistently had high-stress levels for a long time had an 11% greater risk of developing cancer than those with consistently low stress levels.

In new research that has not yet been peer-reviewed, Tworoger and her team looked at the association between social isolation and ovarian cancer risk. They found that people who were socially isolated had about a 1.5-fold increased risk of developing ovarian cancer compared to those who weren't. They also found that people who had more post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms had an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer.

Another analysis, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Cancer, scoured the literature for studies analyzing the association between work stress and cancer risk. They found a significant association between work stress and the risk of colorectal, lung and esophageal cancer — but no association with the risk of prostate, breast or ovarian cancer.

Will we ever know?

Many other studies have also found no association. For example, Tworoger and her team did not find an association with job strain and ovarian cancer risk in a 2017 study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. What's more, a study published in 2018 in the European Journal of Cancer categorized the link between stress and cancer as a "myth."

Some experts think that it's not the stress itself that's causing the cancer, but the unhealthy behaviors that come with being stressed.

Indeed, "the general consensus seems to be that chronic stress does not cause cancer per se, but it can indirectly increase cancer risk," through stress-related behaviors such as smoking or heavy drinking, said Firdaus Dhabhar, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Miami, who was not a part of the talk.

Other unhealthy, stress-induced behaviors, such as eating a bad diet and not exercising, also increase the risk of certain cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute. Tworoger, however, thinks that skeptics are writing off the cancer-causing effects of stress too fast. Stress hormones can cause "other biologic effects that are involved in the development of cancer," Tworoger said. So "I think we do need more studies before we can say if [the link between chronic stress and risk of cancer] is a myth."

Either way, there's "more and more evidence" that decreasing stress can improve survival and quality of life for patients who already have or had cancer, Tworoger said. "This has generated interest in mindfulness [and] yoga interventions for cancer survivors with promising results," Bandera added.

And reducing stress and leading a healthy lifestyle is important for many reasons Tworoger said. We "don't know that stress causes cancer, but we do generally know that identifying strategies to help cope with stress can be very positive," Tworoger said.

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Originally published on Live Science.

Feelings of sadness or anxiety might be linked to increased "chitchat" between two areas of the brain, a new study suggests.

In the study, published today (Nov. 8) in the journal Cell, a group of researchers listened in on electrical conversations in the brain — in other words, the signals that brain regions send to one another. When a person is feeling down, they found, the communication increased between brain cells in two specific regions of the brain involved in memory and emotion.

It's unclear whether this increased brain communication is a cause or an effect of a bad mood, the researchers noted. However, the findings allowed them to home in on the part of the brain where the action is. [5 Ways Your Emotions Influence Your World (and Vice Versa)]

What is clear, however, is that anxiety, depression and mood have physical manifestations in the brain. "For many patients, it is very important to know that when they are feeling depressed, it is due to something measurable and concrete within their brain," said co-senior study author Dr. Vikaas Sohal, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco. "For some patients, this can provide important validation and remove stigma, empowering them to seek appropriate treatment."

The researchers carried out the study using a technique called intracranial electroencephalography (EEG). As the word "intracranial" implies, the method involves implanting electrodes or wires inside the skull — in and on the brain. These implanted electrodes record the electrical activity of brain cells (in other words, record their communication).

Previous studies looking at brain activity and mood and emotion were mostly conducted using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of imaging that measures changes in blood flow to different parts of the brain. But those "are indirect measures of brain activity" and they "cannot measure changes in brain activity that occur on very fast timescales," like the ones measured in this study, Sohal said.

However, implanting electrodes in a person's brain is an invasive procedure. So, the researchers recruited patients who were awaiting surgery and already had electrodes in their brains — in this case, 21 patients with epilepsy whose brain electrodes were primarily used to identify which regions of the brain were causing their seizures.

The researchers recorded the brain activity of these patients for seven to 10 days. During that same time period, the patients tracked their moods using mood diaries.

The study found that in 13 of the 21 patients, a bad mood was associated with an increase in communication between the amygdala (a brain region involved in processing emotions) and the hippocampus (involved in memory).

"The idea that memories of negative experiences and negative emotions are closely linked is an old idea in psychiatry, and is at the core of cognitive behavioral therapy," Sohal told Live Science. "Our findings might represent a biological basis for this relationship." (Cognitive behavioral therapy is a method that mental health experts use to treat conditions such as depression and anxiety, and involves changing the way a person thinks and behaves.)

A sad tune on the radio

Both the amygdala and the hippocampus have long been known to be involved in mood, depression and anxiety, Sohal said. However, he likened previous knowledge to knowing that a song is playing on a radio station, but not knowing which station to tune in to.

Now, we know the radio frequency — the activity pattern or communication of the neurons — and can therefore set our devices properly, Sohal said. In other words, these findings could be useful for developing new treatments that target this activity in the brain, Sohal said. Such treatments could, for example, aim to manage or decrease the excess communication between the amygdala and the hippocampus.

Still, it's unclear exactly how emotion and memory intermingle. Sohal speculated that, perhaps when a person is in a depressed mood, negative emotions in the amygdala trigger the recollection of sad memories, or vice versa.

It's also unclear if the bad mood causes increased chitchat in these regions, or if increased chitchat causes the bad mood. Even if it is the latter, Sohal said, and it turns out that yet another part of the brain is ultimately responsible for a person's bad mood, it's likely that the increased signaling still contributes to amping up the emotions. But if the brain activity is a result of a bad mood, researchers might be able to tap into this and measure it — like a pacemaker measures heart rhythms— to monitor the level of sadness in a severely depressed patient, for example.

Now, the team hopes to understand how this signal arises and if it affects other parts of the brain.

Originally published on Live Science.

Women can experience lingering health problems years after workplace sexual harassment or sexual assault, a new study finds.

These health problems can include high blood pressure, poor-quality sleep, anxiety and symptoms of depression, the researchers found after doing medical exams of about 300 women.

The findings are timely given the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, in which a growing number of women are talking about their sexual harassment and assault experiences, according to a statement about the research, which was published online today (Oct. 3) in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine and will be presented at the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) annual meeting in San Diego on Friday (Oct. 5). [6 Ways Sexual Harassment Damages Women's Health]

"There is a clear correlation between the experience of sexual harassment or sexual assault for a woman and adverse effects on her life, be they physical or mental health consequences," said Dr. Maureen Sayres Van Niel, a women's psychiatrist practicing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and president of the American Psychiatric Association Women's Caucus, who wasn't involved with the study.

"There is no question that the elimination of sexual violence will improve the health and mental health of women," she said.

Lingering health problems

The new findings aren't completely out of the blue. Researchers have known for years that there is a link between women who experience sexual assault and harassment and later health problems. But much of the previous research relied on self-reported symptoms, meaning that the women might be missing health problems they didn't known about.

So, the research team decided to medically evaluate each woman in the new study. They ended up recruiting 304 women from the Pittsburgh area who were between the ages of 40 and 60 years old. None of the them were smokers — Smoking increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, which has overlapping symptoms with many of the ones women were checked for in the study.

According to the results, 58 of the women (19 percent) had experienced workplace sexual harassment and 67 of them (22 percent) reported that they had experienced sexual assault. Thirty of the women (10 percent) reported that they had experienced both sexual harassment and assault.

Women who reported being sexually assaulted had nearly three-fold greater odds of having symptoms of depression and more than two-fold greater odds of higher anxiety and poor sleep on par with insomnia than women who didn't report experiencing sexual assault, the research showed. Meanwhile, women who said they were sexually harassed in the workplace had more than twice the odds of having high blood pressure and showed an 89 percent increase in the odds of having poor-quality sleep compared with women who didn't experience workplace sexual harassment.

The women who reported workplace sexual harassment were more likely to be college educated, but they also had greater financial strains than the rest of the group, the researchers found. It's unclear why this is, but it's possible that these highly educated women worked in male-dominated fields and may also be more knowledgeable about what constitutes sexual harassment, lead study author Rebecca Thurston, a professor of psychiatry, psychology and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, and her colleagues wrote in the study.

However, the findings are correlational, so the researchers can't say for sure that sexual assault and harassment cause poor health. What's more, the study had a relatively small sample size, Van Niel told Live Science. [The Sex Quiz: Myths, Taboos and Bizarre Facts]

Even so, the findings are a step forward for research on women's health, Van Niel said. She noted that the study adds to the idea that stressful events such as sexual harassment and assault may explain why women tend have twice the prevalence of anxiety and depression as men do.

Women who have experienced unwanted sexual attention should know that there are treatments available that can help them manage any physical and mental health problems that may have stemmed from such experiences, Van Niel said.

To get help, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673, which is available 24 hours a day and is completely confidential.

Originally published on Live Science.

They aren't drugs you'd ever expect to see scribbled on a doctor's prescription pad: ecstasy, "magic" mushrooms, ayahuasca.

But in recent years, a number of small studies have explored the potential for psychedelic drugs to treat certain mental health conditions. And the results suggest that, along with talk therapy, the drugs may benefit some people.

"Combined with [talk therapy], some psychedelic drugs like MDMA [or ecstasy], psilocybin [the active ingredient in magic mushrooms] and ayahuasca may improve symptoms of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]," Cristina Magalhaes, an associate professor of clinical psychology at Alliant International University in Los Angeles, said in a statement. Magalhaes co-chaired a symposium on psychedelics and psychotherapy on Aug. 9 at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA) in San Francisco.

Still, more research and discussion are needed to better understand the possible benefits of the drugs, as well as the ethical and legal issues surrounding their use, Magalhaes said. (Many psychedelic drugs, including the three addressed in the symposium, are illegal in the United States and are available only for patients in research studies.) [Trippy Tales: The History of 8 Hallucinogens]

Here's a look at why these three psychedelic drugs show promise for treating mental health conditions:

MDMA

Research will soon begin a large-scale study of MDMA, the active ingredient in the drug ecstasy, along with talk therapy, for the treatment of PTSD. The "Phase 3" study, which will include at least 230 people, is the final step needed before MDMA can be approved as a prescription drug, according to The New York Times.

The combination of this drug and talk therapy has already shown benefits in smaller studies of patients with PTSD who did not respond to other treatments.

Researchers think that MDMA may help people with PTSD by improving how they respond when they undergo talk therapy, Dr. Michael Mithoefer, a psychiatrist in private practice in South Carolina who has studied MDMA, told Live Science in a 2016 interview.

MDMA may also have benefits for some people with autism who also have social anxiety. In a very small study presented at the APA symposium, researchers examined the effect of two MDMA treatments, spaced a month apart, on 12 adults with autism and social anxiety. The subjects also received talk therapy. The researchers found that the patients experienced significant and long-lasting reductions in their social anxiety symptoms.

"Social anxiety is prevalent in [adults with autism], and few treatment options have been shown to be effective," said Alicia Danforth, of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, who presented the study. "The positive effects of using MDMA and therapy lasted months, or even years, for most of the research volunteers."

Still, because the study was small, more research is needed to better understand how MDMA and talk therapy may treat social anxiety in adults with autism.

Psilocybin

Recent studies also suggest that psilocybincould benefit patients who have cancer-related psychological distress, or cancer patients with depression who haven't benefited from other treatments. For example, in 2016, two studies involving a total of 80 patients found that a single dose of psilocybin could considerably reduce the depression and anxiety felt by patients who had terminal or advanced cancer, compared with those who took a placebo. And the effect was long-lasting; up to 80 percent of participants saw their reductions in depression and anxiety last for six months.

In another study discussed at the APA symposium, 13 patients with life-threatening cancer who experienced anxiety and distress were treated with psilocybin combined with talk therapy. Results showed that the patients were better able to grapple with loss and existential distress, and many patients said they developed a new understanding of dying, according to the researchers.

"Participants made spiritual or religious interpretations of their experience, and the psilocybin treatment helped facilitate a reconnection to life [and] greater mindfulness and presence and gave them more confidence when faced with cancer recurrence," said Gabby Agin-Liebes, a doctoral candidate in psychology at Palo Alto University in California, who presented the study.

Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca is a drink made from plants that grow in the Amazon and that indigenous people in South America have traditionally used for spiritual ceremonies. It contains the hallucinogen N,N-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, as well as compounds that may have anti-depressive effects.

Indeed, preliminary research suggests that the drug may benefit people who have depression. In a small study in Brazil, researchers looked at the effects of ayahuasca in six people with depression who'd never taken the drug before. Within hours of taking ayahuasca, patients saw improvements in their symptoms, which lasted for the three-week study period, according to a 2015 article in the journal Nature. The researchers are now conducting larger studies of the drug.

As for how ayahuasca and other drugs help with psychiatric conditions, there are likely many factors involved. But one study suggests that feelings of spirituality, and how they related to people's ability to regulate their emotions, may play a role.

That study, also presented at the symposium, involved 159 participants who reported that they had taken a hallucinogen at some point in their lives, such as psilocybin, ayahuasca or LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide).

Participants also reported on their levels of spirituality and their relationships with their emotions. The study found that use of hallucinogens was linked with increased levels of spirituality, which in turn was tied to improved emotional stability and fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression.

"This study reinforces the need for the psychological field to consider a larger role for spirituality in the context of mainstream treatment, because spiritual growth and a connection to something greater than the self can be fostered," said Adele Lafrance, an associate professor of psychology at Laurentian University in Ontario, who presented the findings at the symposium.

Original article on Live Science.

Americans are becoming more anxious about their safety, health, finances, politics and relationships, a new online poll from the American Psychiatric Association finds. Compared to the results of a similar poll a year earlier, 39 percent of adults in the U.S. are more anxious today than they were a year ago.

As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, I believe studies and polls like these help to identify individual and group vulnerabilities. They may provide clues for providing better clinical practice, implementing more effective public policies, and designing research projects that yield a better understanding of the causes of anxiety and better treatments.

Although anxiety is rising across all age groups and demographic categories, there are notable distinctions between certain groups.

For example, millennials are more anxious (especially about finances) than Gen-Xers or baby boomers – though boomers' overall anxiety increased more than the other age groups. Women reported a greater increase in overall anxiety in all dimensions than men, and non-Caucasians’ overall anxiety rose faster in the preceding year than did Caucasians. Sometimes, anxiety occurs without clearly defined worries or awareness, suggesting the poll may have only captured part of a rise in adult Americans' anxiety levels – and those adults' anxiety may be affecting children and teenagers too.

While this poll was not designed to detect or diagnose anxiety disorders or pathological anxiety, it does indicate that people are perceiving greater potential danger to many elements of their well-being.

Anxiety is a lower-grade version of a fear response. Severe instances of fear – such as actual direct threats of pain, injury or death – can cause very real physical reactions, including a release of stress hormones into the bloodstream and changes in heart rate and blood pressure, as the body prepares to react rapidly.

Anxiety-triggered physiological responses are slower to develop, but can last longer. Rather than being caused by an immediate threat, it can happen as people adapt to changing situations, such as visiting new countries, starting a different job or experiencing major life transitions such as marriage, parenthood and aging. Often, anxiety dissipates as a person becomes more familiar with the new situation. Short-term and mild-to-moderate anxiety states are adaptive as they increase our alertness and prepare us for new challenges.

Although our genetic makeup controls much of our fear and anxiety responses, recent studies also implicate our social environment. Children are especially sensitive to their caretakers' emotional states, which means that if more adults are more anxious, the same is true for kids.

But if it lasts, anxiety, like fear, can bring long-lasting physiological changes such as prolonged muscle tension, chronic high blood pressure and sleep disorders. Some groups may be particularly vulnerable to long-term anxiety, such as people with physical or cognitive limitations that make it hard to adapt to new situations.

For others, worrying can become so overwhelming that a person does not focus on other important areas of life issues such as work, school or relationships. An especially anxious person may become excessively sensitive to minor concerns, which may be manifested by overreacting or avoiding people or situations that are not dangerous.

Although regular exercise, relaxation, healthy eating and time with friends and family are all known to reduce anxiety, these fixes may not be sufficient. To quote Martin Luther King Jr., given the social nature of anxiety, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." This suggests that addressing actual threats and communicating carefully about perceived ones can have a beneficial impact on anxious Americans.

Jacek Debiec, Assistant Professor / Department of Psychiatry; Assistant Research Professor / Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.

Something as simple as running out to grab a coffee may not be a memorable experience — but anxiety could change that. A new study suggests that people with higher anxiety levels might remember certain events better than people with lower anxiety levels.

That's because, researchers say, higher anxiety may make people more susceptible to negative feelings, putting them in a more negative state of mind. That, in turn, may make certain events seem more memorable.

In other words, a little bit of anxiety could give your memory a boost. [10 Ways to Keep Your Mind Sharp]

Consider this scenario: If a person is having a bad day and then goes to Starbucks, where the barista asks a neutral question, such as "Would you like milk in your coffee?" this may be interpreted as something negative if someone is in a bad frame of mind. Later, an individual may remember this trip for coffee as a negative experience because of this negative mindset, said co-study author Christopher Lee, a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

High anxiety and memory

In the study, the researchers started by giving 80 undergraduate students an anxiety test. They found that the people who scored highly on that test — which measured anxiety experienced in the two weeks prior — were more susceptible to negative feelings than people with lower levels of anxiety. The people in the study didn't have a diagnosed anxiety disorder.

Then, to test memory, the participants were shown a series of neutral words, one at a time, overlaid onto either a photo of a negative scene — meaning something that could affect their emotions, such as a car accident or a cemetery — or a neutral scene, such as a lake or trees. Neutral words included words like "table" or "desk" that don't elicit emotion.

Later, the participants were asked to think back to the words they were shown earlier, which caused them to re-enter either a negative or neutral mindset, said study author Myra Fernandes, a professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo in Canada. The participants were then presented with another set of neutral words, and their memory of these new words was tested.

The researchers found that the new words presented to people in a negative mindset were better remembered by people with higher levels of anxiety than those with lower levels of anxiety.

In other words, when highly anxious individuals took in otherwise emotionally neutral information that was presented to them, it became tinged by their negative mindset, making the information more memorable. But these same effects were not seen in people with low levels of anxiety, the researchers found. [11 Tips to Lower Stress]

Making something memorable

It's not entirely clear how anxiety may enhance memory. It could be that for highly anxious people, memories of neutral events seen or neutral information learned while in a negative mindset become more "emotionally tainted," rendering it more memorable, Fernandes told Live Science.

Previous studies have found that extreme levels of anxiety, such as those experienced by people diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, can be quite detrimental to memory and cognitive performance, Fernandes said. But the highly anxious people in this study represent individuals who are managing their anxiety, and it is not debilitating to them, she noted.

What's more, the findings also suggest that it's important to be aware of how biases can occur when people take in and remember information, the researchers said.

One of the limitations of the study is that it looked only at a person's memory of words and not other types of information, such as faces, scenes or color, Fernandes said. So, it's not yet known if the findings would apply to these other aspects of memory, she noted.

Another limitation is that the participants were all college students, typically in their early 20s, and it's not clear whether similar results would be seen in people of other ages.

The study was published in the January issue of the journal Brain Sciences.

Originally published on Live Science.

If you regularly feel anxious, you might be the perfect candidate for a dog bite.

According to a new study published today (Feb. 1) in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, dog bites in the United Kingdom may be three times more common than official records indicate. One surprising reason for this? People with an emotionally anxious personality appear to be the likeliest recipients of dog bites (and the least likely people to report them), researchers said.

"The only official statistics collected on dog bites in the U.K. are hospital admissions, not even visits to emergency rooms for treatments," lead study author Carri Westgarth, a research fellow at the University of Liverpool's Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, told Live Science in an email. "We have no idea how many people are actually bitten by dogs and how many bites require medical treatment." [What Your Dog's Breed Says About Your Personality]

To obtain a more accurate snapshot of canine-induced damage, Westgarth and her colleagues surveyed nearly 700 people in 385 households in the small town of Cheshire about their dog-bite experience. Veterinary students went door-to-door, conducting brief interviews with Cheshire residents about dog ownership, and then left more detailed questionnaires with the willing participants.

The questionnaires asked any participants who had been bitten by dogs to elaborate on one biting incident, providing information on how old they were at the time of the bite, their relationship to the dog and whether they sought medical attention afterward. Adult respondents also filled out a 10-item personality test, which helped researchers categorize the participants according to the so-called Big Five personality traits (extroversion, conscientiousness, openness to new experiences, agreeableness and emotional stability).

Right away, the researchers found that the rate of dog-bite incidents reported by Cheshire residents greatly exceeded the national average indicated by official hospital records. "Hospital records show the rate of dog bites is 740 per 100,000 [people] of the population, but the survey responses indicate a rate of 1,873 per 100,000 — nearly three times the official figure," the researchers wrote in the study.

When the team started looking at the common factors behind the respondents' reported dog bites, things got a little more interesting. For one, men were nearly twice as likely as women to have been bitten in their lifetimes. About 44 percent of bites occurred in childhood (when participants were younger than 16 years old), and 55 percent of bites were inflicted by dogs that the victim had never met before the incident. "Other research suggests that most bites are from familiar dogs, but this challenges that," Westgarth said.

Most surprising, though, was an apparent link between dog bites and respondents who scored lowest for emotional stability on the personality test. The more emotionally unstable a person was, the more likely they were to have been bitten by a dog.

"Our findings suggest that the less anxious, irritable and depressed a person is, the less likely they are to have been bitten," Westgarth said.

Related: Dog-mauling death: Why dogs turn on their owners

As conducted, the study cannot confirm whether a person's low emotional stability results in a higher likelihood of being bitten, or whether being bitten results in lower emotional stability. Further research is required, Westgarth said — and for her, it's personal.

"Unfortunately, I have been bitten at least five times that I can remember," she said. "Mostly whilst working in rescue kennels, but sadly, I also suffered a bite to the face as a toddler from one of our family dogs — and I still have the scar on my forehead to prove it!"

Originally published on Live Science.

If you're feeling stressed, a whiff of your romantic partner's shirt may help you feel more relaxed, a new study shows.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) found that smelling a romantic partner’s clothing was associated with lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in women's blood, according to the study, published Jan. 3  in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

"Many people wear their partner's shirt or sleep on their partner's side of the bed when their partner is away, but may not realize why they engage in these behaviors," lead study author Marlise Hofer, a graduate student in the UBC Department of Psychology, said in a statement. "Our findings suggest that a partner's scent alone, even without their physical presence, can be a powerful tool to help reduce stress." [11 Tips to Lower Stress]

The researchers included 96 opposite-sex couples in the study. The men were asked to wear T-shirts for 24 hours, without wearing any deodorant or scented body products. They were also asked to not smoke and to eat only foods that wouldn't affect their body scent. After the T-shirts had been worn for a day, they were frozen to preserve their smells.

Then, the women were given two T-shirts to smell: an unworn T-shirt and one that belonged to either a stranger or the woman's own partner. (In other words, women were either given an unworn T-shirt and their partner's shirt to smell, or an unworn T-shirt and a stranger's shirt to smell.) In both groups, the women were not told whether either shirt was worn, or who wore the shirt.

Women tend to have a better sense of smell than men, which is why they were chosen to be the "smellers" in the study, the researchers said.

After smelling the two shirts, the women participated in a mock job interview and a mental math task; this was done to raise their stress levels. To measure stress, the researchers asked the women questions about how much stress they felt and collected saliva samples to measure cortisol levels, according to the statement.

In the experiment, the women who received a T-shirt worn by their partners, rather than strangers, had lower cortisol levels, the researchers found.

Among the women who received their partner's shirt, plus an unworn shirt, smelling the partners' T-shirts was linked to a significant reduction cortisol levels, compared with smelling the unworn shirts. In addition, the women who smelled their partners' shirts said they felt less stress both before and after the interview and math test, the researchers said.

Furthermore, the effect was greater in women who recognized that the scents belonged to their partners, suggesting the benefits of a loved one's scent are strongest when women know what they are smelling, according to the study.

However, smelling a stranger's T-shirt had the opposite effect: It resulted in higher levels of cortisol throughout the stress test compared with smelling the unworn T-shirt, the researchers said in the statement.

"From a young age, humans fear strangers, especially strange males, so it is possible that a strange male scent triggers the 'fight or flight' response that leads to elevated cortisol," Hofer said in the statement. "This could happen without us being fully aware of it."

The findings could be used to help people cope with stressful situations when they're separated from loved ones, the researchers said.

"With globalization, people are increasingly traveling for work and moving to new cities," senior study author Frances Chen, an assistant professor in the UBC Department of Psychology, said in the statement. "Our research suggests that something as simple as taking an article of clothing that was worn by your loved one could help lower stress levels when you're far from home."

Originally published on Live Science.

A British man's symptoms of anxiety were eventually traced to an unusual cause: his repeated exposure to a toxic substance while in the navy, a recent report of the man's case suggests.

The man worked as a naval engineer for five years. During this time, he was exposed almost daily to trichloroethylene (TCE), or "trike," a solvent used for cleaning and degreasing ships and aircraft, according to the case report, which was published Dec. 23 in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

Trichloroethylene is a colorless liquid with a sweet odor, and one of its main uses is to remove grease from metal parts, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In this case, the man said he and other members of the naval engineering crew would spray trichloroethylene from a can onto a cloth, and everyone who used it "seemed to get high from the fumes," the researchers wrote in the case report. He also said he "was regularly overcome to the point of feeling dizzy by trike." [27 Oddest Medical Cases]

These minor symptoms of dizziness and feeling "high" did not last long, but that feeling was probably the man's first clue that this was not a safe solvent to be using, said the case report author, Dr. Joshua Au Yeung, who treated the man 20 years later at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in Manchester, England.

The man's exposure to trichloroethylene was made worse because the ships were not well ventilated, and the navy did not provide any protective equipment, such as masks, to limit the crew's ability to breathe in the vapors, Au Yeung told Live Science.

Identifying the culprit

The 24-year-old man first went to the hospital following a weeklong binge of alcohol in the navy — and not because he was concerned about his exposure to trichloroethylene.

When he went to the hospital, he was feeling extremely anxious, he was shaking (tremors) and he was breathing quickly. In addition, he told doctors he had a dull headache and blurry vision, and that he felt a tingling sensation on the right side of his face.

As doctors spoke with the man, they found out that he had graduated at the top of his naval class and that he had no history of regular or excessive use of alcohol before this incident. Doctors did not ask him detailed questions about his work, so his exposure to TCE never came up.

At the time, he was treated by a psychiatrist, who thought the man's symptoms had resulted from a withdrawal from alcohol, Au Yeung said. But over the next few months, his symptoms of anxiety became more frequent, until they wouldn't go away, according to the case report.

That's why the man's psychiatrist decided to send him to a toxicologist, a scientist who can detect exposure to poisonous substances, and a neuropsychiatrist, a psychiatrist who specializes in neurological illnesses, for a more comprehensive evaluation. These tests revealed that the man's symptoms of anxiety were linked to an unexpected culprit: his exposure to trichloroethylene as a naval engineer.

Regular exposure to trichloroethylene, which is a toxin, can affect every system in the body, Au Yeung said. Once the toxin is inhaled and gets into the blood, it can irritate and damage nerves directly, he said.

When nerves are irritated, they can cause pain, numbness and burning sensations, Au Yeung said. Damage to the nerves by a toxin can change the amount of neurotransmitters they release. For example, it can reduce levels of serotonin, which can lead to depression, he noted.

But, unfortunately for this man, the doctors identified the toxic culprit too late for them to reduce the man's absorption of TCE into his blood. He developed severe anxiety and depression from his exposure to the toxin, according to the report.

"The damage had been done in this case, so the man has not improved," Au Yeung said.

Twenty years later, the man has become dependent on alcohol — drinking two to three bottles of wine a day —  and takes a variety of prescribed sedative medications to numb his anxiety, Au Yeung said.

Originally published on Live Science.

Don't worry, be happy

There's no single formula for happiness. But scientists continue to investigate aspects of our lives that may affect our well-being, including social media use, exercise and even our posture.

Here are eight interesting things we learned in 2017 about the factors that may influence happiness and lower your odds of stress and depression.

How sharing can make kids happy

For young children, sharing can bring happiness, but only if they do it voluntarily, a study from China suggests.

The study looked at groups of 3- and 5-year-olds who were either pressured to share objects — in this case, stickers — or were given the opportunity to share voluntarily.

The researchers found, judging by facial expressions, that the kids were happier when they shared voluntarily, compared with when they kept the stickers for themselves. In contrast, the kids did not experience the same happiness boost when they were pressured to share.

The study suggested that children can experience a positive mood when they share voluntarily, which may lead to further sharing, the researchers said.

The study was published in the May issue of the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

Meditation could lower the body's stress signals

Practicing meditation could help your body handle stress better.

In one study, people with anxiety disorder who took a course in mindfulness meditation showed reduced levels of stress hormones and markers of inflammation during a stressful event, compared with how their bodies reacted before taking the meditation course. In contrast, participants who did not learn mindfulness meditation, but instead took a course in stress management, did not show similar reductions in the same measures during a stressful event.

Mindfulness meditation helps people learn to focus on the present moment, and accept difficult thoughts or feelings.

The study findings suggest that mindfulness meditation "may be a helpful strategy to decrease biological stress reactivity" in people with anxiety disorder, the researchers wrote in their study, which was published Jan. 24 in the journal Psychiatry Research.

Exercise may boost your mood

Even a little exercise may help combat symptoms of depression..

The study analyzed information from nearly 34,000 Norwegian adults, who were asked about their level of exercise as well as their symptoms of depression, and were followed for 11 years.

The study found that people who said that they never exercised at all at the beginning of the study were 44 percent more likely to develop depression, compared with those who said they exercised 1 to 2 hours per week.

The researchers estimated that, if all participants had exercised for at least 1 hour a week, 12 percent of cases of depression could have been prevented.

The researchers conclude that modest changes in a population's level of exercise could have substantial mental health benefits.

The study was published Oct. 3 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Hawaii is the happiest state … again

Could moving to Hawaii make you happier? Residents of the Aloha State certainly seem to know a thing or two about happiness — Hawaii frequently tops the list of happiest U.S. states in an annual poll.

Residents of Hawaii scored highest on Gallup-Healthways' annual survey of well-being in 2016, with a score of 65.2 out of 100. The results for the 2016 survey were released in February 2017. These results marked the sixth time that Hawaii has come out on top in the poll since Gallup-Healthways began conducting it in 2008.

The rankings are based on interviews with more than 177,000 U.S. adults in all 50 states. The researchers calculated a well-being score for each state, based on participants' answers to questions about different aspects of well-being, including their sense of purpose, social relationships, financial lives, community involvement and physical health.

Swipe right? Tinder could hurt self-esteem

Online dating apps aim to boost your love life, but the process may take a toll on your mental health, early research suggests.

In a recent study, researchers analyzed information from more than 800 college-age students who either used the online dating app Tinder, or didn't use the app. Participants were asked questions about their mood, self-esteem and body satisfaction levels.

The study found that Tinder users were more likely than nonusers to report negative feelings, such as feeling pressure to look a certain way, or experiencing negative moods.

Still, this doesn't mean you have to get off Tinder. To curb possible negative effects from online dating, the researchers recommend that people do not use Tinder as a means of self-validation — in other words, you shouldn't judge yourself by the number of matches you get. Users should also keep in mind that the photos they see of others are often selected to show a person at their very best, rather than in their day-to-day life.

The study was presented Aug. 3 at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting.

Tip for a better mood: Sit up straight

Simply sitting up straight may improve your mood, at least over the short term, a preliminary study from New Zealand suggests.

The study involved 61 people whose scores on a survey indicated that they had mild to moderate symptoms of depression. About half of the participants received instructions on how to adopt a good posture (sitting up straight), and the researchers also applied sports tape to the participants' backs in a manner that's been shown to improve posture. The other half of the participants were not given any instructions about posture, and had a few pieces of tape applied to their backs in a random manner.

The participants were then asked to fill out a survey about their mood. The results showed that people in the upright-posture group reported feeling more enthusiastic, more excited and stronger and less fatigued than the people in the regular-posture group.

Future work is needed to investigate the long-term effects of posture changes on mood, and whether adopting an upright posture could actually aid in treating depression, the researchers said.

The study was published in the March 2017 issue of the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry.

Sleep troubles may affect depression risk

Trouble sleeping is often thought of as a symptom of other mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety. But recent research suggests that lack of sleep itself may actually contribute to these mental health conditions. What's more, the findings suggest that improving sleep could aid in easing depression and anxiety.

The study involved more than 3,700 college students in the United Kingdom who had insomnia. Participants answered questions about their sleep and other mental health conditions at the beginning of the study and after a 10-week treatment for insomnia called cognitive behavioral therapy.

The study found that those who received the insomnia treatment had decreased levels of depression and anxiety, and improved psychological well-being, compared with those who didn't receive the treatment.

"For many people, insomnia can be part of the complex package of causes of mental health difficulties," the researchers said. The findings suggest that doctors who treat mental health conditions should give a higher priority to treating sleep difficulties than they currently do, the researchers said.

The study was published Sept. 6 in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry.

Too much Facebook may harm mental health

Many people jokingly lament that they spend "too much time on Facebook." But could overdoing it on the "likes" actually harm your mental and physical health?

A recent study suggests it might. The study, which analyzed Facebook data from more than 5,200 people, found that more activity on Facebook was linked with reduced well-being. For example, people who reported "liking" a lot of things on Facebook, or who updated their status more often, tended to report having worse mental health, than those who liked fewer things on Facebook or updated their status less often.

Although it's possible that people with worse mental health may seek solace in Facebook, the results held even after the researchers took into account people's reports of mental health at the beginning of the study, and their number of "real-world" friendships.

The findings suggest that, in some cases, Facebook use may be contributing to reduced well-being. Individual social media users might do well to curtail their use of social media and focus instead on real-world relationships," the researchers concluded.

Still, not all studies have found detriments to Facebook use, so some experts recommend that, until further research is conducted, people use social media sites in moderation.

For dog owners, the following scenario may be all too familiar: You get home from a long day of work only to find your favorite slippers in tatters on the floor, scattered pieces of foam torn from the sofa cushions and teeth marks running up the legs of your wooden chair.

Your first instinct may be to scold your four-legged friend, but before you do that, it's important to understand why dogs chew things in the first place.

"Chewing, for a dog, is like a human opening a door and looking into a room," said Colin Tennant, the chairman of the U.K. Canine and Feline Behaviour Association. "People are nosy, and so are the dogs. But they investigate with their mouths, because they don't have hands." [Why Do Breeds Look So Very Different, But Cats Don't]

Tennant, who has worked on dog behavioral problems for 30 years, said that in extreme cases (such as the scenario described above), so-called separation anxiety can make the problem worse. This is the psychological distress that some dogs experience when left alone for an extended period of time.

"Dogs are pack animals. They don't like being left alone," Tennant told Live Science. In particular, "dogs that are not used to being alone can get really anxious when the pack is absent and [can] display damaging behaviors such as chewing or ripping off the carpet," he said.

However, even a well-adjusted pooch may find it difficult to keep its jaws away from certain things around the house, especially particularly alluring objects, such as the slippers.

"Dogs frequently chew things because they like the taste or the odor," Tennant  said. "In a home, the odors that the dogs find the most attractive are the human odors. People leave their shoes about, and the shoes have an intense smell."

Moreover, the shoe texture is particularly inviting for the dogs. It speaks to their wild animal instincts, Tennant said.

"Shoes are frequently made of leather, and that reminds the dog of animals," said Tennant. "Dogs eat animals. They are predators."

Wooden furniture can be similarly appealing, particularly to puppies, Tennant said. If a dog chews on a wooden stick in the garden or a in a park, humans don't complain. The animal, however, can't distinguish between an "allowed" piece of wood (that stick in the park) and a "forbidden" piece of wood (your favorite chair), Tennant said.

Instead, the dog needs to be trained to avoid objects that humans assign value to and needs to be offered alternatives. However, the animal may not automatically accept the alternatives. [Puppy Love: Test Your Dog Breed Knowledge]

"The most common misconception people learn from the internet is that they just need to buy the dog some toys and [the chewing] would stop," Tennant said. "It won't. A toy would smell of plastic, which is not necessarily a pleasant smell for a dog, [whereas] the shoe stinks of a human, which is a fantastic smell [for a dog]. They love it. There is no contest."

That means that it's up to the human to teach the dog to ditch the smelly shoes in favor of the sterile toy. One way to do this, Tennant said, is to use chasing games to reinforce the relationship between the toy and the dog.

"Throwing the toy is a way to teach the dog to find toys attractive," Tennant said. "Dogs are possessive. It's part of their nature. The moment you dash over to take an object away from them, they will run off with it — exactly the same way they would if another dog came over."

Soft, cushy toys appear to be almost as popular amongst dogs as shoes, Tennant added. This is another facet of the dogs' psychology owners tend to dislike, because the easily destroyed toys need to be replaced quite often.

Whatever the dogs chew, it's important to discipline them immediately. Any scolding given after they've stopped the undesired action will have no effect on a dog's future behavior.

"Dogs live in the moment," Tennant said. "If you scream at them half an hour after they destroyed something, the only thing they would learn is that sometimes you act nuts."

And that holds true even if your dog looks guilty when you yell at it. The most harmful misconception is for people to believe that dogs understand the consequences of their past actions, Tennant said. The guilty look confuses owners, but it's there only because the dog doesn't like being scolded, Tennant said.

Originally published on Live Science.

Anyone who has experienced the euphoric "runner's high" that follows a satisfying workout will likely attest to a connection between physical activity and mental health. Studies have long borne this theory out: Endorphins, the opiate-like chemicals that flood the brain after intense or sustained exercise, appear to act as a buffer against depressive thoughts and feelings.

But you don't have to train to the point of collapse to reap the benefits of this "mind-body" relationship: A new study from Australia finds that even small doses of exercise — as little as 1 hour per week — can elevate one's mood, regardless of age or gender. [How to Start an Exercise Routine and Stick to It]

"We've known for some time that exercise has a role to play in treating symptoms of depression, but this is the first time we have been able to quantify the preventative potential of physical activity in terms of reducing future levels of depression," lead study author Dr. Samuel Harvey, an associate professor of medicine at the Black Dog Institute at the University of New South Wales, said in a statement.

In the study, which was published Oct. 3 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the researchers looked at data from the Health Study of Nord-Trøndelag County (aka the HUNT study), one of most extensive population-based health surveys ever conducted. Specifically, they tracked the levels of exercise and symptoms of depression in nearly 34,000 Norwegian adults between January 1984 and June 1997.

At the beginning of the HUNT study, participants were asked about their frequency and intensity of exercise, then, at a follow-up session, about any symptoms of anxiety and depression.

The scientists found that people who said they never exercised had a 44 percent increased risk of developing depression compared with those who sweated it out 1 to 2 hours a week. There was no link between exercise levels and symptoms of anxiety, however.

In fact, just 1 hour of physical activity each week could have prevented 12 percent of depression diagnoses over the course of the study period, the researchers said.

"These results highlight the great potential to integrate exercise into individual mental health plans and broader public health campaigns," Harvey said. "If we can find ways to increase the population's level of physical activity even by a small amount, then this is likely to bring substantial physical and mental health benefits."

The findings are significant, but perhaps even more so because most of the psychological benefits of exercise manifest almost immediately, Harvey said.

"With sedentary lifestyles becoming the norm worldwide, and rates of depression growing, these results are particularly pertinent as they highlight that even small lifestyle changes can reap significant mental health benefits," he added.

Scientists are unsure why exercise has this protective effect. “But we believe it is from the combined impact of the various physical and social benefits of physical activity,” Harvey said.

Originally published on Live Science.

If you've ever had a concussion, you may have heard that you should take it easy for two weeks or so before easing back into your regular activities. But new research suggests that two weeks may not be sufficient, especially for teenage girls.

The general understanding of how to best manage a concussion largely stems from studies conducted mostly in adult men, many of whom were professional or elite athletes. But women, and in particular, adolescent girls, may need to manage concussions differently, a new study finds.

In fact, girls of middle and high school age can take more than twice as long to recover from a concussion as boys of the same age, according to the study, published today (Oct. 2) in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

In the study, researchers looked at the medical records of more than 200 adolescent athletes, ages 11 to 18, who had each experienced one concussion. Roughly half of the athletes were male and half were female. The researchers looked at how long each athlete's symptoms lasted after the concussion. [10 Things You Didn't Know About the Brain]

The median duration of symptoms was 11 days for boys and 28 days for girls, the researchers found. This means that the recommendation that athletes stay out of action for about two weeks after the injury would cover boys, while girls wouldn't have reached even the halfway point in their recovery.

The findings "confirm what many in sports medicine have believed for some time," lead study author Dr. John Neidecker, a sports-related concussion specialist at Orthopaedic Specialists of North Carolina, said in a statement.

Part of the difference between boys' and girls' recovery times might be explained by biological differences between their brains that aren't particularly well-understood, Neidecker told Live Science.

Underlying medical conditions could also play a role. Conditions such as depression, anxiety or migraines could cause concussion-like difficulties with focus, attention, balance or pain, and a concussion should aggravate or exacerbate these symptoms.

"Most of these conditions are more [common] in females than males," Neidecker said. The longer duration of symptoms observed in adolescent girls after concussions could therefore be the result of an "aggravated pre-existing condition," he said.

In April, top concussion researchers from around the world released a consensus statement from the 5th International Conference on Concussion in Sport on how to study, prevent, manage and treat concussions. The statement noted that earlier research showed that concussions can exacerbate other conditions, including depression, anxiety, headaches and stress.

Neidecker agreed that stress can also play a role. "This is a stressful injury," he said. "It's stressful being an adolescent, and stress in itself can bring in concussion symptoms — irritability, difficulty sleeping [and] difficulty concentrating. It's hard to tell what's from stress and what's from the injury."

To better treat concussions in adolescent girls, it's crucial for doctors to find out what pre-existing conditions patients may have, Neidecker said. Knowing if a patient also has depression or migraines, for example, can help a doctor recommend more-appropriate treatments sooner, which can help bring the gap in recovery time between the genders down, Neidecker said.

The problem is that many adolescents may not know if they have migraines, for example, and instead assume that their headaches are normal, Neidecker said. In these cases, doctors need to get creative to tease the information out, he said.

The researchers noted that the study had limitations. For example, the patients included in the study self-reported their symptoms, which may have introduced inaccuracies. In addition, the research was conducted at a medical practice in New Jersey that focused on sports-related concussions, and this specialization means that the doctors may have been treating more-severe cases than those that occur in the general population, the researchers said.

Originally published on Live Science.

An online therapy program designed to treat insomnia also appears to reduce levels of anxiety and depression, a new study from the United Kingdom finds.

Sleep problems are common in people who also have mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression. In fact, sleep issues are often thought to be a symptom of these other issues, according to the study. But the new findings suggest that the opposite may be true: Some mental health conditions may stem from a lack of sleep.

"How well we sleep might actually play a role in our mental health," lead study author Daniel Freeman, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Oxford, said in a statement. "If you can sort out your sleep, you could also be taking a significant step forward in tackling a wide range of psychological and emotional problems." [Get Better Sleep in 2017]

The new study, which was published today (Sept. 6) in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry, included more than 3,700 British college students (with an average age of 24) who had insomnia. All participants filled out questionnaires about their sleep and other mental health conditions — including paranoia, hallucinations, anxiety and depression — at the beginning of the study and then again after three and 10 weeks, when the treatment ended. Twelve weeks later, the participants filled out the questionnaires for the final time.

The people in the study were randomly assigned to either the treatment group or the control group. Those in the treatment group participated in an online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program. CBT focuses on the way people think, and helps them challenge their own thoughts and beliefs; a specialized type of CBT for insomnia, called CBT-I, is considered to be a "first-line" therapy for people with insomnia that lasts longer than one month, according to the American College of Physicians. The people in the control group did not receive CBT.

The online program involved six 20-minute-long sessions, and the participants were asked to keep a sleep diary, practice certain behavioral techniques and learn about healthy sleep, according to the study. Using data from the sleep diaries, the program tailored its advice to each participant.

The researchers found that after 10 weeks, the people in the treatment group reported less insomnia, fewer hallucinations and fewer experiences of paranoia than those in the control group. In addition, the people in the treatment group had decreased levels of depression and anxiety, and improved psychological well-being and perceived functioning, compared with the people in the control group. ("Perceived functioning" refers to how well the people thought they were functioning on a daily basis.) Further analysis showed that 60 percent of the decrease in paranoia levels could be linked to improved sleep, the study found.

The findings suggest that sleep plays an important role in mental health and that doctors should consider it a priority to improve patients' sleep, the authors wrote.

"For too long, insomnia has been trivialized as merely a symptom" of other mental health conditions, and has been thought of as a problem to be tackled, Freeman said. But "for many people, insomnia can be part of the complex package of causes of mental health difficulties," he said. 

The researchers noted that the study had limitations. For example, many people did not complete the study, so it's unclear if the findings would apply to larger groups of people, the researchers said. Only half of the participants logged in to two therapy sessions, and just 18 percent logged in to all six sessions. In addition, the participants self-reported their symptoms, which can be an unreliable method, the researchers said.

More research is also needed to see how long the effects of the CBT online therapy last, the researchers said.

Originally published on Live Science.

This season's hottest toy is marketed as an antidote for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and autism — but it's also being banned in classrooms across the country.

"Fidget spinners" are small, ball-bearing devices that the user can rotate between his or her fingers. The momentum of the toy provides a pleasing sensory experience, according to user reviews, while the challenge of tossing, transferring and twirling the spinners has spawned an entire universe of instructional YouTube videos. [How Fidget Spinners Work: It's All About the Physics]

Many spinners are marketed as aides for individuals with anxiety, autism and ADHD; Cppslee's spinner marketing patter on Amazon, for example, promises greater concentration for people with those conditions, plus an opportunity to "bring out that creative genius lying deep within you." [Why Fidget Spinners Are So Hot (and Where to Buy Them)]

Unsurprisingly, these claims are probably overblown, scientists say.

"Using a spinner-like gadget is more likely to serve as a distraction than a benefit for individuals with ADHD," said Mark Rapport, a clinical psychologist at the University of Central Florida who has studied the benefits of movement on attention in people with ADHD.

Scientists decided to find out whether there was any basis to these claims made by manufacturers. In a review of relevant literature published July 7, 2017, in the journal Current Opinion in Pediatrics, scientists including Dr. Ruth Milanaik, director of the neonatal follow-up program at Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, found that no research had specifically focused on the link between these spinners and kids' attention. Not only that, but there were no peer-reviewed studies at all on fidget spinners, they said. With this lack of research, manufacturers' claims about the usefulness of fidget spinners are baseless, the authors concluded. 

(The so-called fidget cube — which is a plastic cube equipped with various buttons and dials for fidgeting hands — may be more classroom friendly, according to a scientist who studies intersection of human computer interaction and games, who pointed out on the website The Conversation that the cube doesn't require visual attention. "They can serve the same purpose as the spinners, but are more classroom-ready and less distracting," Katherine Isbister, professor of Computational Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, wrote on The Conversation.)

Regardless of their usefulness in keeping kids' distracted brains focused, fidget spinners have sparked a conversation about attention spans in kids and how to help the little ones focus, experts told Live Science. For instance, though there isn't a lot of data supporting the idea that kids have less focus today than in the past, some research does suggest attention spans have decreased as multitasking has increased with the digital age, one expert said. There are various methods for bringing kids' focus back to the lesson at hand, psychologists say, including fidgeting devices, activity breaks and the simple removal of extra distractions. (The devices may also teach kids something about physics, or at least ball bearings.) 

A trend erupts

Fidget spinners emerged this spring, seemingly from out of nowhere, as a must-have gadget. Before December 2016, Google searches for the words "fidget spinner" were basically nonexistent. Now, teachers are posting about their frustrations with spinner-obsessed students on Twitter, and the toys even have their own forum on Reddit.

"I will call you 'Annoying Spinny Thing' and you will live in my desk drawer," Kansas Spanish teacher Amanda Dickey tweeted, punctuating her message with #fidgetspinner and #teacherprobs. [How to Do Timeout: 12 Tips from Science]

Most of the controversy surrounding fidget spinners has been over schools banning them from classrooms. An elementary school principal in Evanston, Illinois, Kate Ellison, told the Chicago Tribune that the spinners have been a distraction in classrooms in her school, and that children with special needs have other, school-friendly options for fidgeting. Meanwhile, some parents of kids with special needs have hailed the toys' benefits. One blogger, a parent of an 8-year-old with autism, wrote on AutismAwareness.com that her daughter was thrilled to see her classmates wanting to fidget just like her. School-approved fidget devices mark her daughter as different, wrote Miriam Gwynne, but fidget spinners are simply cool.

"For her, the fidget spinner is not a must-have craze to be like her friends, but more a stress release from the demands placed upon her during her school day — much the same as she uses a stress ball or her twist-and-lock blocks," Gwynne wrote. "When schools decide to ban sensory and fidget toys, they risk isolating the very children they’ve spent years trying to include." [25 Scientific Tips for Raising Happy Kids]

The list of schools banning the spinners seems to be growing and now includes schools in Massachusetts, Brooklyn, New York, Florida, Chicago, Illinois, and even across the pond in Manchester, England.

At least one expert is disappointed by the bans. "These little gadgets should be called fidget tools, not toys, and they can be part of a successful strategy for managing fidgety behavior if they are introduced as a normal part of the classroom culture," said Claire Heffron, a pediatric occupational therapist in Cleveland, as reported by The Washington Post.

Even so, teachers say that most kids are using the spinners as toys, focusing on them rather than on class, according to news reports.

Spinner benefits?

There's no doubt that toys that allow kids to fidget can benefit kids with autism. Occupational therapists often use sensory toys like tactile discs, Koosh balls and even putties or clays to soothe kids who have sensory-processing issues. Similarly, research has shown that movement can help kids with ADHD to focus. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology by Rapport and his colleagues looked at 8- to 12-year-old kids with ADHD. The researchers found that those who participated in gross motor activity — meaning the movement of limbs or large parts of the body — performed better than those who sat still during tasks involving working memory, which is a type of memory used for processing incoming information. Exercise has also been proven to be helpful for kids with ADHD. 

But without studies that specifically look at fidget spinners, it's impossible to say for sure whether the devices could help kids with ADHD, Rapport told Live Science. He conjectured that the little handheld toys are not likely to help much. They don't require gross body movement, he said, which is what appears to be responsible for increasing activity in the frontal and prefrontal brain areas that are responsible for sustaining attention. The spinners are also visually distracting, and so they could pull a child's attention away from the chalkboard or teacher, Rapport said.

"Riding a stationary bike while reading, or sitting on a movement ball while working at one's desk, in contrast, allows small (non-distracting) motor movements and would probably prove beneficial for many children with ADHD," Rapport wrote in an email to Live Science.

Spinner safety

An unofficial report in June about possible lead in these toys may have parents worried, but don't clear your home of the spinners just yet. Tamara Rubin, a lead-poisoning-prevention advocate who is not affiliated with any university or research institution, home-tested 11 fidget spinners and found unusually high amounts of lead in two of these. Even so, Rubin's findings have not been replicated nor peer-reviewed; and Rubin only tested 11 spinners. You can read more about possible lead in fidget spinners in this Live Science article.

A bigger concern may be the risk of kids choking on some of the spinner's small parts. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, is looking into reports of children choking on parts that have popped out of a fidget spinner, said Patty Davis, the CPSC's acting communications director. And on Aug. 10, 2017, the CPSC released safety guidelines for fidget spinners, warning that the toys could be choking hazards and so kids under 3 should not play with them. The CPSC also said that the toys should not be put in the mouth, regardless of the person's age.

Here are some tips from the Toy Association for keeping your kids safe while fidget-spinning: Follow age labels; shop at reputable stories (where you'll find toys that passed U.S. testing); follow tips for light-up spinners (make sure the spinner's battery is locked in the toy); check for broken parts (which can be a choking hazard). 

Editor's Note: This article was first published on May 1, and has been updated with information about school bans and kids' attention spans as well as safety concerns. More recently, the article was updated with information about a review study about fidget spinners as well as safety guidelines released by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. 

Original article on Live Science. 

Fidget spinners may be fun toys, but there is no science behind claims that they help kids with attention and focus, according to a new review article.

The review, which was published July 7 in the journal Current Opinion in Pediatrics, found that no research had specifically focused on the impact of these hot new toys on thinking, attention or recall. Furthermore, there are zero peer-reviwed studies on any aspect of fidget spinners, the researchers found. Without that research, claims made by manufacturers about such links are baseless.

"There's no science behind the idea that they increase attention," said study co-author Dr. Ruth Milanaik, director of the neonatal follow-up program at Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York. "We have to view it as what it is: It's a toy, a fun toy." [How Fidget Spinners Work: It's All About the Physics]

Claims of attention

Some of the companies marketing fidget spinners, or small, ball-bearing-filled plastic toys that spin when you rotate them, claim the toys can increase attention for those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or calm symptoms of autism or anxiety. For instance, the Cppslee Hands Fidget Spinner sold on Amazon claims the toys are great for anxiety, focusing, ADHD and autism, in addition to quitting bad habits and staying awake. [Why Fidget Spinners Are So Hot (And Where to Buy Them)]

To see whether any of these marketing claims had basis in fact, Milanaik and her colleagues looked through the available literature to find studies on fidget spinners. It turned out, there is no scientific evidence supporting these marketing claims, Milanaik and her colleagues reported in the current review paper. That could be because the gadgets don't benefit a kid's focus, or because nobody has done a substantial enough study on the claims.

Fidgeting benefits

Some limited studies do show benefits to fidgeting in children with ADHD. For instance, in a small study published in 1995 in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry found that boys with ADHD who can squirm and fidget instead of sitting still show greater attention to a task; however, the same benefit was not shown for children who did not have ADHD. A 2016 study monitored children's activity via an ankle bracelet and found that children with ADHD tended to do better on attention tasks when they could fidget.

When it comes to fidget toys, one study found that children who used stress balls, which are squishy foam balls, reported better attention in class and improved performance. Still other work shows that fidgeting and movement releases norepinephrine and dopamine, the same brain chemicals that are stimulated by ADHD medications. In addition, some evidence suggests that certain types of self-regulation toys can incentivize children with autism to complete tasks at school, the study found.

No evidence of benefits

However, there were no studies that specifically looked at the effects of fidget spinners on attention, the review found. And no two distraction-aid toys are alike, so extrapolating from studies that used different toys can be dicey.

"The concept of using therapy putty might be different from using a squish ball might be different from the concept of using a fidget spinner," Milanaik told Live Science.

To measure attention, researchers often give children simple tasks, such as adding or subtracting small numbers, and then count how many they complete (and complete correctly) either with or without the toys, Milanaik said. Studies may also assess listening and recall by asking people to repeat back a series of numbers either with or without the toys, she added. Milanaik's group is currently assessing the role of "therapy putty" on attention, though they likely won't have results for several months.

Limiting use in schools

Parents who believe fidget spinners have attentional benefits for their kids should feel free to experiment with their child while they're at home, doing homework or reading a book, Milanaik said.

But letting them enter the classroom is a different story. Most schools ban toys from classrooms, but some still allow children to bring in fidget spinners to address their sensory issues, the study found. But with no scientific evidence of their benefits, fidget spinners in the classroom could do more harm than good, the study noted. 

For one, some fidget spinners come apart easily, and the ball bearings inside them can be choking hazards, she said.

Beyond that, one child's attention aid could be another child's annoying distraction, Milanaik said.

For instance, in research meetings, Milanaik has found that fidget spinners can distract group members.

"They make a spinning noise, we find it distracting when we have to work in a group — but we all like to use them," Milanaik said.

And of course, any toy that enters the classroom could be the source of squabbling, bartering or other distracting behavior, which could undercut any potential attentional benefits, the review noted.

"A classroom is a wonderful group of children," Milanaik said. "Some things that might be great for one child might be very distracting for another."

Originally published on Live Science.

Some people are so afraid of snakes or spiders that the sight of these creatures makes their hearts race, their breathing speed up and their palms sweat. But other people have similarly uncontrollable reactions to seeing clusters of bubbles. Their skin begins to crawl, they become nauseated and they may even throw up.

Why clusters of bubbles — or circles or holes — that pose no threat can elicit such strong feelings of disgust has been discussed since the condition, called trypophobia (which means "fear of holes" in Greek), was first documented in 2013. Some scientists have suggested that the extreme reaction to round shapes occurs because they resemble spots or circles found on poisonous animals, including snakes and the blue-ringed octopus.

But now, new research suggests that the intense anxiety is likely linked to fears of parasites and infectious diseases. Diseases, including smallpox and measles, as well as parasites, like mites and ticks, produce patterns on the skin that look like clusters of round shapes. [What Really Scares People: Top 10 Phobias]

"Pathogens and parasites have been one of the main threats to humans and animals during their evolutionary history," said Tom Kupfer, a postgraduate researcher in psychology at the University of Kent in England. Avoiding them reduces the chance of getting sick, he told Live Science.

"It's fairly well recognized that the most significant adaption humans have for disease avoidance is the emotion disgust," Kupfer said.

To investigate whether the disgust reaction in people with trypophobia was a "disease avoidance" tactic, Kupfer and his co-author An Trong Dinh Le, who was a PhD candidate in psychology at the University of Essex at the time of the research, set up an experiment that involved tapping two Facebook support groups for people who describe themselves as having trypophobia.

The researchers recruited 300 people from the Facebook groups and 300 university students who did not have trypophobia. Both groups were shown a total 32 images. Eight photos contained so-called disease-relevant images of clusters linked to disease — for example, a rash of circles, a person's smallpox scars or a collection of blood-engorged ticks. Eight other photos contained disease-irrelevant images of harmless items that had clusters of circles, including drilled holes in a brick wall and a lotus flower seed pod. The other 16 photos had no holes, bumps or circular patterns at all.

Kupfer said he and Le predicted that both groups would find the disease-relevant images unpleasant but that only the people with trypophobia would also find the disease-irrelevant photos unpleasant. The researchers also predicted that most of the people would express feeling disgusted, not fearful. [9 DIY Ways to Improve Your Mental Health]

That's precisely what happened.

"We found that only a small percentage of them reported fear or fear-related feelings," Kupfer said. "The majority reported disgust or disgust-related feelings." The findings were published online July 7 in the journal Cognition and Emotion.

The researchers reported that when the people with trypophobia looked at images with clusters of holes or bubbles, they said things like, "The primary feeling is one of inexplicable and extreme revulsion," and "I feel disturbed in general and contaminated."

Kupfer said many people also reported feeling itchy and as though their skin were crawling. One person said, "I feel like the holes are all over my arms, legs and entire body, so I scratch my skin until it usually bleeds."

These comments related to skin sensations may indicate an extreme anxiety about parasites, the researchers concluded.

Kupfer noted that because this phobia is newly discovered, it hasn't been officially recognized as a mental disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

He would like to undertake a large-scale, comprehensive analysis to estimate how many people have it.

"Understanding it and describing it — its features and why it exists — is probably useful for the people who have it and the people who are going to try to treat it," Kupfer said.

Originally published on Live Science.

For some people, meditation may trigger experiences that are unpleasant or even distressing, according to a new study.

For example, some people may become hypersensitive to light or sound during or after they meditate, the researchers found. Others may experience fear, anxiety or panic related to meditation, they found.

"Many effects of meditation are well-known, like increased awareness of thoughts and emotions, or improved calm and well-being," lead study author Jared Lindahl, visiting assistant professor of the humanities at Brown University in Rhode Island, said in a statement. "But there is a much broader range of possible experiences." [Mind Games: 7 Reasons You Should Meditate]

Many factors affect "exactly what those experiences are, how they affect individuals and which ones show up as difficult," Lindahl said.

In the study, the researchers wanted to identify meditation experiences that could be seen as challenging to cope with, as such experiences had been underrepresented in the scientific literature. The scientists interviewed nearly 100 people — a group that included regular people who meditate as well as some people who teach meditation — about their experiences during and after meditation. Based on the results, the researchers identified 59 different experiences associated with meditation.

While some of these experiences, such as feelings of unity with others, were seen as desirable by some study participants, others interpreted them as disorienting, the researchers found.

Some of the potentially challenging experiences reported by the participants involved sensory changes. For example, some of the people said that meditation made them hypersensitive to light or sound. Others reported experiencing involuntary movements, insomnia, dizziness or headaches associated with meditation. Some participants reported emotional experiences such as feeling fearful, anxious, panicky or emotionless because of meditation.

"I think for us the really surprising thing was just the sheer number and diversity of things that we found," Lindahl told Live Science.

There were also people who had experiences that they interpreted as positive when they happened during meditation retreats, but that persisted once the people had left the retreat and that therefore interfered with their functioning or work. This shows that "an experience that is positive and desirable in one situation may become a burden in another," Lindahl said. [10 Things You Didn't Know About the Brain]

The new results show that meditation does not trigger only positive experiences, and that people experience meditation-related phenomena that can be distressing, the researchers said.

"The purpose of our study is to help and to reach and support those people who  currently feel somewhat marginalized by the dominant positive discussions about meditation and dominant narratives around what meditation is thought to do," Lindahl said.

More research is needed to examine the neurobiological mechanisms behind such experiences, study co-author Willoughby Britton, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University, said in a statement.

The study was published May 24 in the journal PLOS ONE.

Originally published on Live Science.

Good sleep is essential for our mental well-being. Just one night of disturbed sleep can leave us feeling cranky, flat, worried, or sad the next day. So it's no surprise sleeping problems, like difficulty falling asleep, not getting enough sleep, or regularly disrupted sleep patterns, are associated with anxiety and depression.

Anxiety and depression, which can range from persistent worry and sadness to a diagnosed mental illness, are common and harmful.

Understanding the many interacting factors likely to cause and maintain these experiences is important, especially for developing effective prevention and treatment interventions. And there is growing recognition sleep problems may be a key factor.

Which problem comes first?

The majority of evidence suggests the relationship between sleep problems and anxiety and depression is strong and goes both ways.

This means sleep problems can lead to anxiety and depression, and vice versa. For example, worrying and feeling tense during bedtime can make it difficult to fall asleep, but having trouble falling asleep, and in turn not getting enough sleep, can also result in more anxiety.

Sleep disturbance, particularly insomnia, has been shown to follow anxiety and precede depression in some people, but it is also a common symptom of both disorders.

Trying to tease apart which problem comes first, in whom, and under what circumstances, is difficult. It may depend on when in life the problems occur. Emerging evidence shows sleep problems in adolescence might predict depression (and not the other way around). However, this pattern is not as strong in adults.

The specific type of sleep problem occurring may be of importance. For example, anxiety but not depression has been shown to predict excessive daytime sleepiness. Depression and anxiety also commonly occur together, which complicates the relationship.

Although the exact mechanisms that govern the sleep, anxiety and depression link are unclear, there is overlap in some of the underlying processes that are more generally related to sleep and emotions.

Some aspects of sleep, like the variability of a person's sleep patterns and their impact on functioning and health, are still relatively unexplored. More research could help further our understanding of these mechanisms.

Sleep interventions

The good news is we have effective interventions for many sleep problems, like cognitive behaviour therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).

So there is the possibility that targeting sleep problems in people who are at risk of experiencing them – like teenagers, new mothers and people at risk for anxiety – will not only improve sleep but also lower their risk of developing anxiety and depression.

Online interventions have the potential to increase cost-effectiveness and accessibility of sleep programs. A recent study found a six-week online CBT-I program significantly improved both insomnia and depression symptoms. The program included sleep education and improving sleep thoughts and behaviours, and participants kept sleep diaries so they could receive feedback specific to their sleep patterns.

We're conducting some research to improve and even prevent physical and mental health problems early in life by targeting sleep problems. Using smart phone and activity tracker technology will also help tailor mental health interventions in the future.

General improvements to sleep might be beneficial for a person with anxiety, depression, or both. Targeting one or more features common to two or more mental disorders, like sleep disturbance, is known as a “transdiagnostic” approach.

Interventions that target transdiagnostic risk factors for anxiety and depression, like excessive rumination, have already shown some success.

A good foundation

For many people, treating sleep problems before treating symptoms of anxiety and depression is less stigmatising and might encourage people to seek further help. Addressing sleep first can develop a good foundation for further treatment.

For example, people with a depressive disorder are less likely to respond to treatment and more likely to relapse if they have a sleep problem like insomnia.

Many of the skills learned in a sleep intervention, such as techniques for relaxation and reducing worry, can also be used to help with daytime symptoms of both anxiety and depression. And this is not to mention the physical benefits of getting a good night's sleep!

If you're concerned about your sleep or mental health, speak to a health care professional such as your GP. There are already a number of effective treatments for sleeping problems, depression and anxiety, and when one is treated, the other is likely to improve.

And with research in this area expanding, it's only a matter of time before we find more ways to use sleep improvement interventions as a key tool to enhance our mental health.

Professor Emeritus John Trinder contributed to this article.

Joanna Waloszek, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Psychology, University of Melbourne and Monika Raniti, Master of Psychology (Clinical)/PhD Candidate, University of Melbourne

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Deep breaths can settle your nerves, and now scientists have discovered the neural pathway in the brain that controls this process.

In an experiment on mice, scientists identified a circuit of neurons — a tiny cluster of a mere 350 nerve cells, among millions in the mouse brain — that regulate the connection between breathing and the higher-order brain activity that affects how calmly or worked up the mice behaved.

When the scientists removed these cells, they found that the mice still breathed normally, but they were uncharacteristically calm. This discovery, the researchers said, may someday lead to therapies to help people who have anxiety, stress and panic attacks. [11 Tips to Lower Stress]

A paper describing the work was published today (March 30) in the journal Science.

Breathing is largely an unconscious, involuntary action that's among the most basic rhythms of life. It is the process in which most animals inhale oxygen to create energy at a cellular level and then exhale carbon dioxide, the byproduct of this cellular respiration.

Yet humans have known for millennia that taking long, slow, deep breaths can have a calming effect and reduce stress. Conversely, panic attacks can cause a person to take short, fast breaths, further exacerbating the sense of unease.

Researchers have known that neural circuits throughout the brain regulate breathing, but until now, they had not pinpointed the neural pathway that connects breathing to the emotional states of anxiety and calmness.

In the new work, a team led by Dr. Mark Krasnow, a biochemistry professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California, searched the main region of the brain that controls breathing rhythms — called the pre-Bötzinger complex — which is nestled in a rudimentary section of the brain stem called the pons. In an experiment that was the culmination of years of work involving techniques such as neural mapping and genetically engineered mice, Krasnow's team zeroed in on the responsible circuitry.

The team found a subset of neurons in the pre-Bötzinger complex that transmits signals to a region in the pons that moderates feelings of alertness, attention and stress. [10 Interesting Facts About Caffeine]

They also found that these neurons express two proteins, cadherin-9 (CDH9) and developing brain homeobox protein 1 (DBX1), which are controlled by the Cdh9 and Dbx1 genes, respectively.

The researchers then turned to genetically engineered mice, in which they could mute the Cdh9 and Dbx1 genes. This enabled the researchers to select and kill the approximately 350 neurons that are thought to connect breathing to arousal, yet leave all the other neurons untouched, according to the study's lead author, Dr. Kevin Yackle, an assistant researcher at the UCSF School of Medicine. Afterward, the researchers found that the mice spent more time in a calm state.

Although deep breathing is an easy and safe way to control anxiety and stress, Yackle sees potential for developing medicines that target these genes.

"In panic disorders, it may be nearly impossible for one to control breathing," Yackle told Live Science. "Therefore, a pharmacological approach may be critical for preventing these panic attacks triggered by hyperventilation."

Yackle also said that sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) may result when the brain doesn't sense a lack of oxygen while the infant is sleeping, and thus doesn't arouse the body. Some babies may be at higher risk for SIDS for reasons of genetics or because they were born prematurely. In these cases, babies at the highest risk for SIDS might benefit from a therapy that improves the neural signaling between oxygen intake and arousal, Yackle said.

Follow Christopher Wanjek @wanjek for daily tweets on health and science with a humorous edge. Wanjek is the author of "Food at Work" and "Bad Medicine." His column, Bad Medicine, appears regularly on Live Science.

A compound in marijuana called cannabidiol could help treat people who have anxiety disorders, a new review of previous research suggests.

Cannabidiol could be used in addition to talk therapy to treat anxiety disorders such as phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the review concluded. However, most of the studies examining whether the compound works as a treatment for anxiety have been conducted in animals, the researchers said. So more research is needed to see how well the compound might work in people with anxiety disorders, the researchers said.                                                

A key part of anxiety is fear, and the few human studies that have been conducted on cannabidiol have suggested that the compound dampens people's fear by changing the activity of certain brain regions, said Carl Stevenson, a co-author of the new review and a neuroscientist at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. [Marijuana Could Treat These 5 Conditions]

In the review, the researchers looked at previous studies that had examined the use of cannabidiol, also called CBD, which is a marijuana compound that does not give users a high. In some of the studies, researchers had exposed rodents to threatening stimuli to induce anxiety in the animals. The authors of those studies found that giving the rodents cannabidiol seemed to decrease the degree of anxiety the animals experienced.

Similar effects have since been shown in studies that involved healthy people and studies that involved people with anxiety disorders, according to the review, published March 9 in the British Journal of Pharmacology. In one small study of 40 people, published in 1993 in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, researchers found that cannabidiol reduced anxiety when the people who took it were subjected to a stressful situation. In addition, in a study of 24 people who all had social phobia, researchers found that cannabidiol helped to reduce anxiety triggered by a public speaking task, according to those findings, published in 2011 in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

More research is needed to look at the exact mechanisms by which cannabidiol may work to treat people with anxiety. But some brain-imaging studies in humans have suggested that the compound helps regulate the activity of parts of the brain that are involved in negative emotions, including fear, Stevenson said.

Medications currently used to treat people with anxiety have problems Stevenson said, as these drugs do not work for every patient and can take a while to kick in. Moreover, people who take such medications often experience side effects, he noted. (These effects may include drowsiness, weight gain or sexual dysfunction.)

In comparison, previous research into the use of cannabidiol for disorders such as epilepsy has shown that the substance does not tend to have significant side effects, Stevenson told Live Science.

Although most studies done to date on the use of cannabidiol for treating anxiety have been conducted in animal models, there are many similarities between rat and human brains, Stevenson said. Given these similaries and promising results from small studies in humans, further testing of the compound for treating anxiety in humans is warranted, Stevenson said.

Originally published on Live Science.

Model Chrissy Teigen recently revealed that she had postpartum depression, a condition that often left her with too little energy to leave the house for months.

In an essay for Glamour magazine, Teigen wrote that after her daughter was born in April 2016, she found herself feeling stressed, detached and sad, and she lacked her typical energy.

"Most days were spent on the exact same spot on the couch, and rarely would I muster up the energy to make it upstairs for bed," Teigen said. "John [her husband] would sleep on the couch with me, sometimes four nights in a row. I started keeping robes and comfy clothes in the pantry so I wouldn't have to go upstairs when John went to work. There was a lot of spontaneous crying," Teigen said. (Teigen is married to singer-songwriter John Legend.) [9 Celebrities Who Spoke Up About Depression]

And despite landing a book deal for her second cookbook, Teigen lost her appetite and could not taste-test her recipes, she said.

It wasn't until December that her doctor diagnosed her with postpartum depression, and she began taking an antidepressant. "[I] didn't think it could happen to me," she said, but "postpartum does not discriminate."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), postpartum depression affects about 1 in 9 U.S. women shortly after they have a baby. Here are five important facts about the condition.

Postpartum depression is more than just the "baby blues."

After a woman has a baby, it's common for her to experience temporary symptoms such as mood swings, anxiety, problems sleeping and frequent crying, according to the Mayo Clinic. These symptoms are often referred to as the "baby blues." But these symptoms usually last only a few days, or at most two weeks, after which they get better without treatment.

In contrast, symptoms of postpartum depression continue for longer, and are more severe, the Mayo Clinic says. These symptoms may interfere with a mother's ability to take care of herself and her baby, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Postpartum depression may be different from "regular" depression.

Some symptoms of postpartum depression are similar to symptoms of clinical depression that people can experience at any point in their lives. These symptoms include sadness, irritability, a lack of interest in doing most activities, sleeping problems, loss of appetite, and withdrawal from friends and family.

However, a woman with postpartum depression may also experience additional symptoms, according to the CDC. These symptoms include crying excessively, feeling disconnected from her baby, worrying that she will hurt her baby, feeling that she isn't a good mom or doubting her ability to care for her baby.

In addition, there are some differences in brain activity between women with postpartum depression and people with depression at other points in their lives, according to a recent review paper, published Jan. 24 in the journal Trends in Neurosciences. For example, people with clinical depression usually have an increase in brain activity in an area called the amygdala, but women with postpartum depression can show a decrease in activity in this area, the paper said.

The cause is unclear, but hormones may play a role.

Researchers don't know exactly what causes postpartum depression, but there are likely several causes, according to the NIMH. One factor is hormones: Women's levels of estrogen and progesterone increase during pregnancy but drop rapidly after childbirth, the NIMH says. These chemical changes may trigger mood swings. In addition, it's typical for a new mother to lose sleep while caring for her newborn, and sleep deprivation may contribute to depression.

Many women with depression go undiagnosed.

The majority of women with depression do not get diagnosed with the condition. A 2012 study— which involved about 9,000 U.S. women ages 18 to 44, including 345 pregnant women — found that about 60 percent of women who had symptoms of major depression were not diagnosed within the condition. In addition, about half of women with depression did not receive treatment for the condition. Some of the main factors that prevented women from getting treatment included cost, a fear that other people would find out or a feeling that they could handle the problems without treatment.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that doctors screen for symptoms of depression at least once during pregnancy or in the postpartum period.

Postpartum depression is treatable.

There are effective treatments for postpartum depression, including talk therapy and medication, according to the NIMH. These treatments can often reduce or eliminate symptoms.

It's important that women get treatment for the condition, because without treatment, postpartum depression can last for years, the NIMH says. The condition may also affect a mother's ability to care for and bond with her baby. Untreated postpartum depression is also linked with problems for children whose mothers have the condition, including difficulties with both sleeping and eating, as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Original article on Live Science.

ATLANTA — Climate change may have surprising and wide-ranging effects on mental health, experts say.

That's because climate change is both a root cause of mental health crises and a "threat multiplier," meaning that it makes existing mental health problems worse, said Dr. Lise Van Susteren, a psychiatrist in private practice and an advisory board member for the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Van Susteren spoke about the connection between climate change and mental health yesterday (Feb. 16) here at the Climate & Health Meeting, a gathering of experts from public health organizations, universities and advocacy groups that focused on the health impacts of climate change. [5 Ways Climate Change Will Affect Your Health]

For example, researchers have documented a link between extreme climate and weather events and higher levels of aggression, Van Susteren said. A 2013 study published in the journal Science found that increases in temperature and extreme rainfall are associated with increased levels of conflict between individuals, and between groups, she said. 

One possible explanation for the link between rising temperatures and aggression is that higher temperatures increase levels of adrenaline in the body, which can contribute to aggression, Van Susteren told Live Science.  

In her talk, Van Susteren also highlighted the link between rising air-pollution levels — which can be caused by rising temperatures — and a higher risk of neurological and psychiatric problems. When a person breathes in particulate matter from air pollution, that matter can enter a person's olfactory nerve and cause neural inflammation, she said.

Neural inflammation is linked to disorders found in all age groups, including Alzheimer's disease and cognitive disorders, she said.

One question that needs to be explored, however, is whether this neural inflammation also causes more conventional psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and depression, Van Susteren told Live Science.

The American Psychological Association has reported that when pregnant women are exposed to air pollutants, their children are more likely to have symptoms of anxiety and depression, Van Susteren said in her talk. 

In addition, research has shown that the average numbers of emergency room visits for panic attacks and threats to commit suicide are higher on days with poor air quality, Van Susteren said.

But she noted that not all of climate change's effects on health can be easily quantified in studies. "Not everything that counts can be counted," she said. Rather, there are "insidious" effects of climate change that could cause psychological strain on a societal level that will be hard to overcome, she said.  

In one case, a 17-year-old boy in Australia developed such distress over climate change that he wound up hospitalized, Van Susteren said. The doctors who treated him called his condition "climate change delusion" in their report of his case, which was published in 2009 in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. The boy had refused to drink water because he believed that it would cause millions of people in the drought-ridden country to die.

In her talk, Van Susteren stressed the need to take action on climate change; if action is not taken, she said, it will have profound effects on other children's mental health as well.

Originally published on Live Science.