Worrying More About Anxiety in Patients With Epilepsy.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Dworetzky BA
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5706354 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Sixty-one high-math-anxious persons and sixty-one low-math-anxious persons completed a modified working memory capacity task, designed to measure working memory capacity under a dysfunctional math-related context and working memory capacity under a valence-neutral context. Participants were required to perform simple tasks with emotionally benign material (i.e., lists of letters) over short intervals while simultaneously reading and making judgments about sentences describing dysfunctional math-related thoughts or sentences describing emotionally-neutral facts about the world. Working memory capacity for letters under the dysfunctional math-related context, relative to working memory capacity performance under the valence-neutral context, was poorer overall in the high-math-anxious group compared with the low-math-anxious group. The findings show a particular difficulty employing working memory in math-related contexts in high-math-anxious participants. Theories that can provide reasonable interpretations for these findings and interventions that can reduce anxiety-induced worrying intrusive thoughts or improve working memory capacity for math anxiety are discussed.
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Project description:BackgroundPhysical activity (PA) has been found to be an excellent predictor of mortality beyond traditional measures in COPD. We aimed to determine the association between depression and anxiety with accelerometry-based PA in patients with COPD.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 148 stable patients with COPD enrolled in an ongoing, longitudinal, observational study. We measured PA (total daily step count) with a Stepwatch Activity Monitor over 7 days, depression and anxiety with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales (HADSs), dyspnea with the Shortness of Breath Questionnaire, and functional capacity with the 6-min walk test.ResultsIncreased anxiety was associated with higher levels of PA such that for every one-point increase in the HADS-Anxiety score there was a corresponding increase of 288 step counts per day (β=288 steps, P<.001), after adjusting for all other variables. Higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with lower PA (β=-176 steps, P=.02) only when anxiety was in the model. The interaction term for anxiety and depression approached significance (β=26, P=.10), suggesting that higher levels of anxiety mitigate the negative effects of depression on PA.ConclusionsThe increased PA associated with anxiety in COPD is, to our knowledge, a novel finding. However, it is unclear whether anxious patients with COPD are more restless, and use increased psychomotor activity as a coping mechanism, or whether those with COPD who push themselves to be more physically active experience more anxiety symptoms. Future studies should evaluate for anxiety and PA to better inform how to improve clinical outcomes.Trial registryClinicaltrials.gov; No.: NCT01074515; URL: www.clinicaltrials.gov.
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Project description:Facial masks have become and may remain ubiquitous. Though important for preventing infection, they may also serve as a reminder of the risks of disease. Thus, they may either act as cues for threat, priming avoidance-related behavior, or as cues for a safe interaction, priming social approach. To distinguish between these possibilities, we assessed implicit and explicit evaluations of masked individuals as well as avoidance bias toward relatively unsafe interactions with unmasked individuals in an approach-avoidance task in an online study. We further assessed Covid19 anxiety and specific attitudes toward mask-wearing, including mask effectiveness and desirability, hindrance of communication from masks, aesthetic appeal of masks, and mask-related worrying. Across one sample of younger (18-35 years, N = 147) and one of older adults (60+ years, N = 150), we found neither an average approach nor avoidance bias toward mask-wearing compared to unmasked individuals in the indirect behavior measurement task. However, across the combined sample, self-reported mask-related worrying correlated with reduced avoidance tendencies toward unmasked individuals when Covid19 anxiety was low, but not when it was high. This relationship was specific to avoidance tendencies and was not observed in respect to explicit or implicit preference for mask-wearing individuals. We conclude that unsafe interaction styles may be reduced by targeting mask-related worrying with public interventions, in particular for populations that otherwise have low generalized Covid19 anxiety.
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Project description:A cross-sectional epidemiological study in the extreme-west of the state of Paraná was carried out to access the prevalence, distribution, and risk variables of canine Visceral Leishmaniases (cVL). This study was conducted in three areas, two cities of far west of Parana state: Foz do Iguaçu (FI) and Santa Terezinha de Itaipu (STI), and along two transects between these two municipalities. To sample the entire urban area, the cities (FI and STI) were divided into a grid of squares of 400 m2 (patch). Among the 526 patches, 123 in FI, 40 in the transects and 33 in STI were selected according to the 'worst scenario' criterion. In the transect areas, in each 0.86 km five dogs from houses were surveyed to leishmaniasis. In each patch, blood of five dogs from houses (and from neighborhood when necessary) in the areas that seemed to be the most appropriate for the proliferation of vector were surveyed. The infection of the dogs by cVL were assessed using two serological tests were used (cELISA and TR-DPP®), and, for those seropositive for both methods, the PCR method were used. Moreover, dogs presenting clinical signs or cutaneous lesions were sampled to PCR. The identification of Leishmania species was confirmed using PCR-RFLP followed by DNA sequencing. Micro, meso and macro scale environmental variables were also surveyed and statistically analyzed. The prevalence rate Leishmania infantum was 23.8% in FI, 4.7% in STI and 9.1% in the transects areas. Among the extrinsic variables analysed, the number of vectors and the presence of infected dogs in neighbouring were positively correlated with the occurrence of infected dogs. Dog size was positively correlated with cVL infection, while the quality of the dog's nutrition affected cVL negatively. As for cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), the first registry of dogs infected with L. braziliensis in the region shows that there is potential for transmission in peri-urban areas, since environmental conditions allow the proliferation of vectors capable of transmitting this species of parasite. cVL is widely spread in FI, with high prevalence. This supports the hypothesis that the parasite has been present in the region for longer than previously believed, despite the fact that the presence of leishmaniais in the region has only been recognized recently. It is important to control the population of dogs infected with L. infantum (parasite and non-antibodies) to prevent the spread of the disease to other dogs and also to people in the region.
| S-EPMC5726634 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Since the WHO declared the COVID-19 pandemic on March 11, 2020, the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has profoundly impacted public health and the economy worldwide. But there are not the only ones to be hit. The COVID-19 pandemic has also substantially altered mental health, with anxiety symptoms being one of the most frequently reported problems. Especially, the number of people reporting anxiety symptoms increased significantly during the first lockdown-phase compared to similar data collected before the pandemic. Yet, most of these studies relied on a unitary approach to anxiety, wherein its different constitutive features (i.e., symptoms) were tallied into one sum-score, thus ignoring any possibility of interactions between them. Therefore, in this study, we seek to map the associations between the core features of anxiety during the first weeks of the first Belgian COVID-19 lockdown-phase (n = 2,829). To do so, we implemented, in a preregistered fashion, two distinct computational network approaches: a Gaussian graphical model and a Bayesian network modelling approach to estimate a directed acyclic graph. Despite their varying assumptions, constraints, and computational methods to determine nodes (i.e., the variables) and edges (i.e., the relations between them), both approaches pointed to excessive worrying as a node playing an especially influential role in the network system of the anxiety features. Altogether, our findings offer novel data-driven clues for the ongoing field's larger quest to examine, and eventually alleviate, the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
| S-EPMC8719470 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Using a hypothesis-driven approach, subcortical and cortical regions implicated in anxiety disorders in the general population were examined in children with recent-onset epilepsy with versus without anxiety compared to controls. This study reports frequency of anxiety disorders while examining familial, clinical, and demographic variables associated with anxiety in children with epilepsy.Participants included 88 children with epilepsy aged 8-18 years: 25 with a current anxiety disorder and 63 children with epilepsy and no current anxiety disorder. Forty-nine controls without anxiety disorders were included. T1 volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were collected; subcortical volumes and cortical thickness were computed using the FreeSurfer image analysis suite. Analyses focused on adjusted measures of subcortical volumes and cortical thickness.Relative to controls, larger left amygdala volumes were found in the Epilepsy with Anxiety group compared to the Epilepsy without Anxiety group (p = 0.027). In the hippocampus, there were no significant differences between groups. Examination of cortical thickness demonstrated that the Epilepsy with Anxiety group showed thinning in left medial orbitofrontal (p = 0.001), right lateral orbitofrontal (p = 0.017), and right frontal pole (p = 0.009). There were no differences between groups in age, sex, IQ, age of onset, medications, or duration of epilepsy. There were more family members with a history of anxiety disorders in the Epilepsy with Anxiety group compared to the Epilepsy without Anxiety group (p = 0.005).Anxiety is a common psychiatric comorbidity in children with recent-onset epilepsy with volumetric enlargement of the amygdala and thinner cortex in orbital and other regions of prefrontal cortex, suggesting structural abnormalities in brain regions that are part of the dysfunctional networks reported in individuals with anxiety disorders in the general population. These findings are evident early in the course of epilepsy, are not related to chronicity of seizures, and may be linked to a family history of anxiety and depressive disorders.
| S-EPMC4340751 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveCOVID-19 pandemic disease has profound consequences for physical and mental health. In this regard, health care for chronic diseases, especially epilepsy is neglected The purpose of this systematic review study was to investigate the epidemic effect of COVID-19 on increasing the prevalence of mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders in people with epilepsy (PWE).MethodsWe systematically searched MEDLINE, Cochrane, Embase, Web of science, Scopus, and Psych info databases for studies that estimate the prevalence of mental disorders in PWE during the COVID-19 until December 2020. Inclusion criteria included samples of population, with a confirmed diagnosis of epilepsy.ResultsIrrespective of PWE or people without epilepsy (PWOE), all experienced stress and anxiety during COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the studies showed that PWE and even PWOE during the pandemic, suffer from depression. The highest rate of depression was attributed to female PWE with financial problems (66.7%) and the lowest rate of depression in PWE was reported in 8.6%. 7.1-71.2% and 28.2% of patients reported sleep disorders and insomnia, respectively. Less than 2% experienced a sleep improvement.LimitationsDue to a large amount of heterogeneities across the results, we could not evaluate the exact rate of prevalence in spite of using effective measures.ConclusionsPeople with epilepsy were considered as a susceptible group to the impact of the pandemic. Therefore, great attention should be paid to PWE and adequate psychological supports provided in this period to relieve or inhibit risks to mental health in PWE.
| S-EPMC8586733 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The 'Data Deficient' (DD) category of the IUCN Red List assembles species that cannot be placed in another category due to insufficient information. This process generates uncertainty about whether these species are safe or actually in danger. Here, we give a global overview on the current situation of DD amphibian species (almost a quarter of living amphibians) considering land-use change through habitat modification, the degree of protection of each species and the socio-political context of each country harboring DD species. We found that DD amphibians have, on average, 81% of their ranges totally outside protected areas. Worryingly, more than half of DD species have less than 1% of their distribution represented in protected areas. Furthermore, the percentage of overlap between species' range and human-modified landscapes is high, at approximately 58%. Many countries harboring a large number of DD species show a worrying socio-political trend illustrated by substantial, recent incremental increases in the Human Development Index and lower incremental increases in the establishment of protected areas. Most of these are African countries, which are located mainly in the central and southern regions of the continent. Other countries with similar socio-political trends are in southeastern Asia, Central America, and in the northern region of South America. This situation is concerning, but it also creates a huge opportunity for considering DD amphibians in future conservation assessments, planning, and policy at different levels of government administration.
| S-EPMC4428885 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Objective:EpiNet was established to encourage epilepsy research. EpiNet is used for multicenter cohort studies and investigator-led trials. Physicians must be accredited to recruit patients into trials. Here, we describe the accreditation process for the EpiNet-First trials. Methods:Physicians with an interest in epilepsy were invited to assess 30 case scenarios to determine the following: whether patients have epilepsy; the nature of the seizures (generalized, focal); and the etiology. Information was presented in two steps for 23 cases. The EpiNet steering committee determined that 21 cases had epilepsy. The steering committee determined by consensus which responses were acceptable for each case. We chose a subset of 18 cases to accredit investigators for the EpiNet-First trials. We initially focused on 12 cases; to be accredited, investigators could not diagnose epilepsy in any case that the steering committee determined did not have epilepsy. If investigators were not accredited after assessing 12 cases, 6 further cases were considered. When assessing the 18 cases, investigators could be accredited if they diagnosed one of six nonepilepsy patients as having possible epilepsy but could make no other false-positive errors and could make only one error regarding seizure classification. Results:Between December 2013 and December 2014, 189 physicians assessed the 30 cases. Agreement with the steering committee regarding the diagnosis at step 1 ranged from 47% to 100%, and improved when information regarding tests was provided at step 2. One hundred five of the 189 physicians (55%) were accredited for the EpiNet-First trials. The kappa value for diagnosis of epilepsy across all 30 cases for accredited physicians was 0.70. Significance:We have established criteria for accrediting physicians using EpiNet. New investigators can be accredited by assessing 18 case scenarios. We encourage physicians with an interest in epilepsy to become EpiNet-accredited and to participate in these investigator-led clinical trials.
| S-EPMC5939455 | biostudies-literature
Project description:OBJECTIVE:The objective of this study was to assess for independent association of anxiety symptoms with epilepsy localization and other epilepsy-related and demographic factors in a large tertiary care adult epilepsy population. METHODS:Among 540 adults, anxiety was measured by the Symptom Checklist 90-R (SCL-90R) anxiety subscale, and detailed demographics, epilepsy localization, and depression scores (SCL-90R) were collected. High anxiety was defined by SCL-90R anxiety T-score???60. Stepwise multiple logistic regression was carried out to assess for independent association of high anxiety scores with demographic and clinical factors. RESULTS:High anxiety symptoms were present in 46.1% of participants (N?=?250). Focal or unknown epilepsy type and depression scores were independently associated with high anxiety (adjusted odds ratios (OR): 2.89 (95% confidence interval [CI]?=?1.33-6.29, p?=?0.007) and 2.12 (95% CI?=?1.83-2.45, p?<?0.001), respectively; depression odds per 5-point increase in scale). Among the focal epilepsy subpopulation, mesial temporal sclerosis was also independently associated with high anxiety, with adjusted OR: 2.12 (95% CI?=?1.11-4.04, p?=?0.023). Lower education, non-white race/ethnicity, Spanish native language, prior head trauma, antiseizure drug polytherapy, and left focus or bilateral foci (in focal epilepsy) were associated with high anxiety in simple logistic regression, but these associations were not independent. A total of 46 individuals (18.4% of those with high anxiety) scored high for anxiety but not depression. Only 26% of those with high anxiety symptoms were taking a potentially anxiolytic medication. CONCLUSION:Anxiety symptoms, often without concomitant depression, were highly prevalent in this epilepsy sample and independently associated with focal/unknown epilepsy and mesial temporal sclerosis. These results strongly support the value of screening specifically for anxiety in the epilepsy clinic, to direct patients to appropriate treatment.
| S-EPMC6093217 | biostudies-literature