The purpose of this research was to measure the effect of a gestalt group meditation therapy intervention program on occupational stress and anxiety in working women aged 30 to 49 in Korea. Scientific methods were employed to test a gestalt group meditation therapy intervention program as treatment for working women in 30-40s to reduce their level of occupational stress and anxiety. The study...
OBJECTIVE: Cancer patients experience many negative psychological symptoms including stress, anxiety, and depression. This distress is not limited to the patient, as their partners also experience many psychological challenges. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programs have demonstrated clinical benefit for a variety of chronic illnesses, including cancer. This is the first study to...
Cannabis sativa, the most widely used illicit drug, has profound effects on levels of anxiety in animals and humans. Although recent studies have helped provide a better understanding of the neurofunctional correlates of these effects, indicating the involvement of the amygdala and cingulate cortex, their reciprocal influence is still mostly unknown. In this study dynamic causal modelling (DCM)...
OBJECTIVE: A model has been proposed to explain the pathophysiology of mood disorders based on decreased neurotrophin levels during mood episodes; treatment with antidepressants and mood stabilizers is associated with clinical improvement. This study investigated whether changes in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels are associated with the initial antidepressant effects of...
Pyramidal neurons in layer 5 of the cerebral cortex are involved in learning and memory and have complex connections with other neurons through a very large array of dendrites. These dendrites can switch between long term depression and long term potentiation depending on global summation of various inputs. The plasticity of the input into pyramidal neurons makes the neuronal output variable....
BackgroundA yoga practice involving cycles of yoga postures and supine rest (called cyclic meditation) was previously shown to improve performance in attention tasks more than relaxation in the corpse posture (shavasana). This was ascribed to reduced anxiety, though this was not assessed.MethodsIn fifty-seven male volunteers (group average age ± S.D., 26.6 ± 4.5 years) the immediate effect of...
Yoga and meditation can alleviate stress, anxiety, mood disturbance, and musculoskeletal problems, and can enhance cognitive and physical performance. Professional musicians experience high levels of stress, performance anxiety, and debilitating performance-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs). The goal of this controlled study was to evaluate the benefits of yoga and meditation for...
The high prevalence and comorbidity of anxiety and sleep problems, especially insomnia, suggest an important underlying relationship between these disorders. In this article, we highlight two theoretical models explaining this co-occurrence, provide a brief update on the association between anxiety-insomnia and anxiety-cataplexy in general, and review more specifically sleep problems in...
Yoga breathing is an important part of health and spiritual practices in Indo-Tibetan traditions. Considered fundamental for the development of physical well-being, meditation, awareness, and enlightenment, it is both a form of meditation in itself and a preparation for deep meditation. Yoga breathing (pranayama) can rapidly bring the mind to the present moment and reduce stress. In this paper,...
Introduction: We tested the hypothesis that REM sleep contributes to core features of cognitive dysfunction of anxious depression including negative self-appraisals, biased memory processing and unpleasant dream content. Methods: After a habituation night in a sleep lab, a convenience sample of 35 healthy college students and 20 depressed/anxious students were awakened 10 min into a REM sleep...
This study examined the effectiveness of a stress coping program based on mindfulness meditation on the stress, anxiety, and depression experienced by nursing students in Korea. A nonequivalent, control group, pre-posttest design was used. A convenience sample of 41 nursing students were randomly assigned to experimental (n=21) and control groups (n=20). Stress was measured with the PWI-SF...
AbstractThis study examined cognitive distortions and coping styles as potential mediators for the effects of mindfulness meditation on anxiety, negative affect, positive affect, and hope in college students. Our pre‐ and postintervention design had four conditions: control, brief meditation focused on attention, brief meditation focused on loving kindness, and longer meditation combining both...
This study examined the role of intensive mindfulness training on changes in day-to-day experiential processing, psychological symptoms, resilience, and well-being in two groups of community adults (N = 69). Using both quasi-experimental and longitudinal methods, the study found that intensive training, operationalized as 10–12 hours of formal mindfulness practice per day for 1 month, was...
People often respond with distress and avoidance to their own negative experiences, such as the physical, cognitive, and emotional aspects of depression or anxiety. When people with chronic pain respond this way, their overall level of distress may increase, they may struggle to avoid their emotional experiences, and their daily functioning may decrease. The purpose of this study was to examine...
Natural Stress Relief (NSR) Meditation, a mental technique practiced for 15 minutes twice a day, reduces stress and anxiety by inducing a physiological state of deep rest. Regular practice of this technique appears to reduce trait anxiety and to develop qualities associated with self-actualization, such as inner peace, satisfaction, and creativity. This article reports new research that...
CONTEXT: Cannabis sativa use can impair verbal learning, provoke acute psychosis, and increase the risk of schizophrenia. It is unclear where C. sativa acts in the human brain to modulate verbal learning and to induce psychotic symptoms. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of 2 main psychoactive constituents of C. sativa, Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta9-THC) and cannabidiol, on regional...
Abstract Exposure therapy is known to be an effective treatment for anxiety disorders. Nevertheless, exposure is not used as much as it should be, and instead patients are often given supportive medications such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and benzodiazepines, which may even interfere with the extinction learning that is the aim of treatment. Given that randomized controlled trials...
Metacognitive strategies of emotion regulation such as an objective perspective of one's self are known as primary factors in mindfulness intervention. Earlier studies, however, suggest that the effect of mindfulness differs because of the individual variability. In this study, we investigated the influence of the serotonin transporter gene polymorphism during the application of a metacognitive...