Yoga shows some promise for treating anxiety, according to new research
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) affects millions of people worldwide. Unfortunately, for a multitude of reasons including stigma, exclusion of mental health treatments from healthcare plans, misdiagnosis and misinformation, only about half of individuals actively seek care, and only one third...
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People with anxiety show abnormal patterns of cortical thinning across development, study finds
A new study published in the journal Depression and Anxiety compared the MRI scans of people with clinical anxiety to the scans of healthy controls. The researchers uncovered differences in cortical thinning across development, specifically in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex...
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Individuals with anxiety have trouble learning from exploitative partners in trust scenarios, study finds
In an effort to better understand how anxiety traits affect one’s ability to learn under uncertainty, and specifically to what extent social factors influence this relation, researchers from Brown University tested the ability of 257 individuals to adapt to neutral,...
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Heightened anxiety linked to an impaired ability to simulate alternative versions of past events
People with higher trait anxiety tend to have a harder time creating detailed mental simulations, according to new research published in the journal Cognition and Emotion. "My research has convinced me that our capacity to imagine possible personal events critically...
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Study suggests a cognitive bias toward social threat contributes to the maintenance of social anxiety in children
New research published in Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy offers evidence that the maintenance of social anxiety in children is not unlike that in adults. The study found that children with social anxiety disorder displayed a cognitive bias characterized by heightened...
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Women with higher levels of social anxiety may be more accurate in identifying emotions
New research indicates that women with higher levels of social anxiety display heightened performance in a test of cognitive empathy compared to less anxious women. The study has been published in the journal Psychological Reports. "I became interested in researching...
Read moreDetailsPatients with public speaking anxiety show improvement after VR exposure therapy, study finds
A new study suggests that exposure therapy using virtual reality (VR) technology may be an effective way for patients with public speaking anxiety to overcome their fears. These findings were published in Cognitive Behavior Therapy. VR technology continues to improve...
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Combining yoga with cognitive behavioral therapy helps treatment-resistant patients with generalized anxiety disorder
A new study suggests that integrating yoga practice into cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) might be an especially effective treatment for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The findings were published in Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy. GAD is a relatively common mental health...
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Google searches related to anxiety attacks jumped 52% during the pandemic, study finds
A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found evidence to suggest that acute anxiety reached an all-time high in the United States following the declaration of COVID-19 as a national emergency. This evidence came from an unusual source of data...
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Embracing a “growth mindset” for anxiety is linked to reduced symptoms of distress following psychotherapy
A new study published in Motivation and Emotion suggests that implicit beliefs about the malleability of anxiety — a person’s anxiety mindset — can influence treatment outcomes following psychotherapy. Past evidence has suggested that an individual’s attitudes about mental health...
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Anxious and extraverted: Study finds many people with social anxiety don’t fit the “shy” stereotype
Those with social anxiety tend to be shyer and more reserved compared to their counterparts. But new research indicates that this general trend has a notable exception. The study, published in PLOS One, suggests there may be a significant number...
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Study finds a link between increased negative thoughts and a woman’s time of the month
In addition to cramps and bloating, new research may add repetitive negative thinking to the list of side-effects for women on their period. The study published in Clinical Psychological Science found that women with generalized anxiety disorder reported more negative...
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New psychology research sheds light on how social anxiety selectively impairs attentional control
People with higher levels of social anxiety tend to have a harder time shifting their attention away from an angry-looking face towards a happy-looking face, according to new research published in the journal Emotion. The study provides evidence that socially...
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Low self-efficacy and negative beliefs about the world predict heightened social anxiety among online daters
A new study suggests that cognitive appraisal plays a role in the experience of heightened social anxiety among online daters. The findings were published in Computers in Human Behavior. It is commonly believed that online dating is reserved for timid,...
Read moreDetailsVirtual reality study provides insight into how anxious individuals can reduce threat magnification tendencies
During a fear-inducing virtual experience, anxious individuals tended to overemphasize threat, leading to increased skin conductance and higher subjective distress. This finding comes from a study published in Personality and Individual Differences. Virtual reality (VR) technology offers researchers a way...
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