(Press-News.org) Stress and anxiety among Americans is under increasing concern –in the doctor's office, in the workplace and at home. UC student researchers will be examining different facets of the crisis as they take part in a national conference aimed at bringing relief to that suffering.
UC graduate and undergraduate research posters will be presented at the 32nd annual conference of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, which will be held April 12-15 in Arlington, Va. All of the student researchers are under the mentorship of Alison Mcleish, a UC assistant professor of psychology.
Three graduate students and four undergraduate research assistants will represent the UC Department of Psychology at the conference. Here's a roundup of the poster presentations:
The Role of Distress Tolerance in Excessive Worry
Description:
Excessive worry, the defining feature of generalized anxiety disorder, has been identified as a cognitive avoidance strategy to reduce emotional experiences. Distress tolerance is defined as a perceived ability to tolerate emotional distress. This presentation focuses on a survey of 227 college students. The findings suggest that distress tolerance plays a unique role in excessive worry and could be a useful intervention in therapy.
Presenters: Kristen M. Kraemer, a doctoral student in clinical psychology; Kimberly M. Avallone, a doctoral student in clinical psychology ; Alison McLeish, assistant professor of psychology; Christina M. Luberto, a doctoral student in clinical psychology
Emotion Dysregulation as a Predictor of Anxiety Sensitivity and Anxiety Symptoms Among Smokers With Asthma
Description:
Anxiety has long been associated with both asthma and cigarette smoking. It can also impede smoker's efforts to kick the habit. This study on 125 smokers with asthma explored the relationship between anxiety and emotion dysregulation – described as difficulty in managing negative emotions – among smokers with asthma. Results of the study indicate that emotion dysregulation may place smokers with asthma at risk for the development of anxiety issues such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Presenters: Kimberly M. Avallone; Christina M. Luberto; Kristen M. Kraemer; Alison McLeish; Emily O'Brien, undergraduate RA; Emily Jeffries, undergraduate RA
Anxiety Sensitivity and Smoking Outcome Expectancies Among Smokers With Asthma
Description:
Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is significantly associated with smoking behavior and smoking-related cognitive processes. To date, no research has examined the relationship between AS and smoking outcome expectancies among smokers with asthma. This study examined the unique predictive ability of AS in terms of smoking outcome expectancies (i.e., appetite-weight control, positive reinforcement/sensory satisfaction, negative reinforcement/negative affect reduction, negative consequences) among smokers with asthma. The results found that among smokers with asthma, higher levels of AS are associated with expectations of negative outcomes due to smoking. These results suggest that AS is an important factor to consider in terms of cessation interventions, since individuals may differ in their expectations of negative health consequences from smoking.
Presenters: John B. Fleming, undergraduate RA; Kimberly M. Avallone; Christina M. Luberto; Alison McLeish
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Re-experiencing Symptoms and Barriers to Smoking Cessation
Description:
Cigarette smoking is more common among individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and research also shows smokers with PTSD have a tougher time quitting. This survey of 126 smokers explored the unique characteristics of PTSD that could interfere with efforts to quit smoking. The study found that the re-experiencing symptoms of PTSD (e.g. flashbacks) were the primary barriers to cessation.
Presenters: Kimberly M. Avallone; Kristen M. Kraemer; Alison McLeish; Christina M. Luberto; Emily Jeffries
Emotion Dysregulation and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Cluster Severity in a Trauma-Exposed Sample
Description:
Emotion regulation – defined as the modulation, awareness, and acceptance of emotions as well as the ability to engage in goal-directed behavior and apply emotion regulation strategies flexibly in the face of emotion – has been implicated as a principal factor in the maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, specific emotion regulation difficulties (emotional non-acceptance, impulse control difficulties, limited access to emotion regulation strategies) have yet to be explored in relation to severity of the three posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters: avoidance, re-experiencing and hyperarousal. This presentation will examine the role of specific emotion regulation difficulties in the three PTSD symptom clusters, and examine the clinical implications of emotion regulation difficulties in PTSD.
Presenters: Emily O'Bryan; Kristen M. Kraemer; Alison McLeish
INFORMATION:
The ADAA is a national leader in education, training and research for anxiety, depression and stress-related disorders. The non-profit organization provides information and support for patients and health professionals, details of conditions and resources to address stress-related disorders. Over the years, ADAA has launched several national educational campaigns to promote awareness about anxiety disorders and encourage people to seek treatment.
The UC Department of Psychology is recognized nationally for the quality of its undergraduate major and the excellence of its graduate training programs in clinical and experimental psychology.
END
AMES, Iowa – Christopher Karstens was on the ground studying the damage caused by the deadly April 27, 2011, tornado that hit Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Ala.
It was just a week after the tornado. He was between the two cities, in the rough country of the southern Appalachians about 20 miles northeast of Tuscaloosa. He said it's terrain that's "beyond hilly." It's covered by dense forest and clogged by high brush that's tough to walk through. A hike of about 100 yards sometimes took as long as 45 minutes.
It was a perfect place for Karstens – a doctoral student from ...
MAYWOOD, Ill. -- Researchers have determined that bacteria are present in the bladders of some healthy women, which discredits the common belief that normal urine is sterile. These findings were published in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology by researchers at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM).
"Doctors have been trained to believe that urine is germ-free," said Linda Brubaker, MD, MS, dean, SSOM. "However, these findings challenge this notion, so this research may have positive implications for how we treat patients with ...
PINC Solutions, the leading provider of advanced yard management systems (YMS) today announced that the company has been included in the list of "Cool Vendors" in the Supply Chain Management report by Gartner, Inc.
According to the March 26, 2012 report, this year's "Cool Vendors" prove once again that, although aspects of the SCM technology market are mature, innovation continues as companies look for capabilities that make them more competitive or improve their operating metrics.
Traditionally, yard management has been looked at as a means to ...
Money doesn't buy happiness. Neither does materialism: Research shows that people who place a high value on wealth, status, and stuff are more depressed and anxious and less sociable than those who do not. Now new research shows that materialism is not just a personal problem. It's also environmental. "We found that irrespective of personality, in situations that activate a consumer mindset, people show the same sorts of problematic patterns in wellbeing, including negative affect and social disengagement," says Northwestern University psychologist Galen V. Bodenhausen. ...
A new analysis provides a closer look at how much cancer patients value hope — with important implications for how insurers value treatment, particularly in end-of-life care.
The analysis led by Darius Lakdawalla, director of research at the Schaeffer Center at USC and associate professor in the USC Price School of Public Policy, surveyed 150 cancer patients currently undergoing treatment, and is part of a special issue on cancer spending from the journal Health Affairs.
Lakdawalla and his co-authors found the overwhelming majority of cancer patients prefer riskier ...
In the face of mass deforestation of the Amazon, recent findings indicate that we could learn from its earliest inhabitants who managed their farmland sustainably. An international team of archaeologists and paleoecologists, including Dr. Mitchell Power, curator of the Garrett Herbarium at the Natural History Museum of Utah and assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Utah, report for the first time that indigenous people, living in the savannas around the Amazonian forest, farmed without using fire. These findings are published today, April ...
BOSTON – Contrary to popular perception, a large proportion of obese Americans can and do lose weight, say researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. What's more, they say, the old tried and true methods of eating less fat and exercising are some of the most effective paths to weight loss success.
The research results appear in the April 10 online issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
"This is great news because studies have shown that even a 5 percent reduction in weight can lead to improved health," says lead author Jacinda M. Nicklas, MD, ...
San Diego, CA, April 10, 2012 – A third of Americans are now obese, and up to 70% of them are trying to lose weight. In a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston have found in a nationally representative sample that obese dieters who said they ate less fat, exercised more, and used prescription weight loss medications were more likely to lose weight. Diet foods and products, nonprescription diet pills, and popular diets were less successful, according ...
People who received frequent dental x-rays in the past have an increased risk of developing the most commonly diagnosed primary brain tumor in the United States. That is the finding of a study published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Although dental x-rays are necessary in many cases, these findings suggest that moderate use of this form of imaging may be of benefit to some patients.
Ionizing radiation is the primary environmental risk factor for developing meningioma, which is the most frequently diagnosed primary brain ...
The coupled normal mode method is a powerful approach for solving range-dependent propagation problems in underwater acoustics. An important area of study is to improve stability and efficiency so as to be able to deal with complex scenarios in a realistic environment. Professor LUO Wenyu and his group from the State Key Laboratory of Acoustics, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, set out to tackle this problem. After several years of innovative research, they have developed an accurate, efficient, and numerically stable coupled normal mode method to solve ...
