psyche

Depressed patients have higher mortality risk in heart failure

Elevated values ​​on a depression scale allow the prediction ( "prediction") an increased mortality risk in patients with heart failure (cardiac insufficiency), reported Dr. Julia Wallenborn (German Center for Heart Failure, University Hospital Würzburg) on ​​the 80. Annual Meeting of the German Society of Cardiology in Mannheim.

The research group examined 864 patients with "decompensated cardiac insufficiency" - when water retention or shortness of breath occur even at rest - in a hospital with a special questionnaire (PHQ-9) for a depressive mood. A depressed mood was found in 29 percent of all patients. 28 percent of this subgroup had a previously known depression, of which only 50 percent were treated with antidepressants. In the group diagnosed as depressed, 18 percent of the patients died after 27 months, in the group classified as non-depressed 14 percent.

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Your stress is also my stress

But observing stressful situations can trigger a physical stress response

Stress is contagious. It may be sufficient to observe another person in a stressful situation, so that the own body releases the stress hormone cortisol. These are the findings by scientists in a large-scale cooperation project between the Departments of Tania Singer at the Leipzig Max Planck Institute fürKognitions- and neuroscience and Clemens Kirschbaum from the Technical University of Dresden. Empathic stress occurred most frequently when observers were in an intimate relationship to the stressed person and could follow the action directly on a glass pane. But even if strangers were only seen on a screen, which some people replied on alert. In our embossed stress society this empathic mediated stress is a non-negligible factor for healthcare.

Stress is one of the major disease-causing nowadays. It causes various psychological problems like burnout, depression or anxiety. Even those who lead a relatively relaxed life, constantly comes with stressed people in touch. Whether at work or on television: Somebody always just stress, and this can rub off on the environment. Not only felt but also physically measurable as increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

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As related memory and schizophrenia

Many psychiatric disorders are accompanied by memory disorders. Basler researchers now have a network of genes found that controls basic properties of neurons and memory, brain activity and schizophrenia plays a role. Their research results were published in the online edition of the US journal "Neuron".

Yourself to remember information for a short time - for example, a phone number - is a fundamental capability of the human brain. This so-called working memory makes us able to understand us surrounding environment. For maintaining an intact working memory, the brain uses a lot of energy - in many psychiatric disorders, it is disturbed. Researchers at Transfakultären research platform "Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences' (MCN) of the University of Basel and University Psychiatric Clinics now describe a network of genes that controls basic properties of nerve cells and associated with working memory, brain activity and schizophrenia.

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New treatment concept for anorexia and bulimia

With interval therapy for normal weight

Seriously ill people with eating disorders are at the Asklepios Klinik Nord - now treated Ochsenzoll with an interval therapy. In several stages, including a close-knit outpatient treatment, the weight will not only be increased and stabilized, but relapses better bending forward.

Eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa (anorexia) and bulimia (eating / crushing addiction) are difficult to treat. Because with a stationary treatment with increasing body weight and normalization of eating behavior, it is often not done. Back at home everyday threat of relapse into old behaviors. "Recent studies show that after discharge can occur again very quickly a disturbed eating behavior," says Prof. Dr. Claas-Hinrich Lammers, medical director of the Asklepios Klinik Nord - Ochsenzoll and chief physician of the Clinic for Affective disorders. "With our new therapy concept we want to prevent these relapses."

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Depression after heart attack

Perception of threat crucial for recovery

According to a recent research publication, according to refer patients who feel immediately after their heart attack this as a strong threat to a higher risk of depression. The results of this study may contribute decisively to better care for heart patients.

“Heart attack survivors are three times more likely to develop depression than people without heart disease in the first six months after their heart attack. Without treatment, the prognosis worsens and leads, for example, to further cardiac events and possibly death. The causes for the frequent occurrence of depression after heart attacks are still unclear ”, says Prof. Claus Vögele, first author and professor for clinical psychology and health psychology at the University of Luxembourg.

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The effect of psychotherapy on the brain

Frontal lobe of the brain as a central network structure for cognitive behavioral therapy

 

In Germany, approximately one third of people ill at least once in life to a subject in need of mental illness. Psychotherapy is in addition to the pharmacotherapy an effective and widely used method for treating these diseases. Panic disorder occurs in approximately 3-5% and is characterized by sudden onset of panic, palpitations, sweating, and the thought of having to die or to faint.

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Infidelity is us in his face

actually According researchers at the University of Western Australia (UWA) is a grain of truth in the assertion that one can read Infidelity on the face of a man. Especially women who knows the ropes. This is indicated by at least the study by Professor Gillian Rhodes, Professor Leigh Simmons and researcher Grace Morley, which was released in early December in the research journal "Biology Letters".

Participants in the study should look at the face of strangers for three seconds and then judge whether it is a faithful and / or trustworthy person. The persons to assess, had previously made in an anonymous questionnaire indicate whether they had already betrayed a partner in the past, or stretched out someone's partner. According to Professor Simmons, director of the evolutionary center of UWA, lay women to a much higher accuracy to the day than men and were able to assess very carefully whether they sat across a Fremdgänger. In only 38 percent of cases, the women estimated their opponent a false, while men were further invest in 77 percent of cases.

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The breaks make smart

Learn just playing the piano, or study a new dance steps? Then make sure that you always take a break between training sessions. A new psychological study of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, shows namely that learning success is achieved faster if to Schedule regular breaks and not trained around the clock.

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If the depression heals, you can see again clear

Scientists develop method, in future the subjective state of depression can be measured objectively with the

Depression and melancholy are always circumscribed in art and literature with visual concepts: gray and black are the colors that are available for melancholy or depression. In English, however, the depressed mood with the color blue is brought in connection, such as when a depressed person says: "I'm feeling blue." That behind these metaphors also hides an empirical reality, now a research group at the University of Freiburg Medical Center has discovered with scientists from psychiatry, psychotherapy and ophthalmology.

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False estimated is forearmed - model describes how information affects our perception

When we estimate something, we subconsciously use recent experiences. Researchers at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) Munich and the Bernstein Center Munich asked test subjects to estimate distances in a virtual environment. Their results tended towards the mean value of all routes run up to that point. For the first time, the scientists were able to predict the experimental results very well using a mathematical model. It combines two well-known laws of psychophysics with the help of a proposition from probability theory. The study could thus be of fundamental importance for perception research. (Journal of Neuroscience, November 23, 2011)

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