Dealing with constant stress can hurt our physical health. Now two new studies find that adults who take steps to respond to stress in a timely manner are better able to avoid negative health outcomes.
Job Stress
Demand for anxiety and depression treatment at an all-time high
Survey indicates that demand for anxiety and depression treatment remains high for the third consecutive year while demand for treatment for trauma- and stressor-related disorders and substance-use disorders has grown.
Overworked doctors at higher risk of depression
The more hours someone works each week in a stressful job, the more their risk of depression rises, a study in new doctors finds. Working 90 or more hours a week was associated with changes in depression symptom scores three times larger than the change in depression symptoms among those working 40 to 45 hours a week. A higher percentage of those who worked a large number of hours had scores high enough to qualify for a diagnosis of moderate to severe depression.
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New study asks: Does watching the news make us sick?
High risk individuals frequently became so immersed and personally invested in news stories that the stories dominated the individual’s waking thoughts, disrupted time with family and friends, made it difficult to focus on school or work, and contributed to restlessness and an inability to sleep. Perhaps not surprisingly, people with higher levels of problematic news consumption were significantly more likely to experience mental and physical ill-being than those with lower levels, even when controlling for demographics, personality traits, and overall news use.
Patients with dissociation following trauma more likely to experience PTSD
Results from the largest prospective study of its kind indicate that for individuals who experience trauma, the presence of dissociation — a profound feeling of detachment from one’s sense of self or surroundings — may indicate a high risk of later developing severe post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, physical pain, and social impairment. The research, which was led by investigators at McLean Hospital, is published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.