A study of adults seeking treatment for anxiety and related disorders in Canada found that individuals who reported using cannabis more frequently had poorer outcomes of cognitive-behavior therapy compared persons who used cannabis less often or not at all. In...
People with and without anxiety disorders learn to fear a threat equally quickly, according to new research However, people with anxiety disorders tend to have a harder time learning to stop being afraid (when the threat is gone) compared to...
New research finds that individuals diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (SAD) are more likely to use safety behaviors when engaging with others socially. As a result, they are not seen as likable or genuine by those they interact with. This...
A team of researchers has developed and tested a new scale to measure sexual anxiety sensitivity — a fear of physiological arousal sensations during sex. The scale predicted sexual well-being across multiple indicators, over and above an existing scale that...
Researchers recently found that musicians who are less anxious tend to experience more states of flow while playing music and those who experienced more flow scored higher on emotional intelligence. Their study has been published in PLOS One.
An experimental study in China used electroencephalographic imaging and brain activity patterns (known as event-related potentials) to compare the memory processes related to certain words in high- and low-anxiety students. Results indicated that social anxiety modulates the effect of recognition...
A 7-year study of twins found that behavioral inhibition in childhood is associated with social anxiety in adolescence. Behavioral inhibition was primarily assessed through shyness. Parental stress and a number of other factors were found to influence the strength of...
Many people flock to cities, but can urban areas actually be detrimental to mental health? A study published in Nature’s Scientific Reports suggests that traffic sounds may be related to increased depression, while birdsongs may be related to reduced anxiety.
Video feedback has been shown to help people with social anxiety disorder correct distorted self-perceptions. A recent study suggests that offering additional group feedback leads to further improvements, decreasing perceptions of anxiety and social concerns and increasing perceptions of performance.
Childhood trauma is well-known to have adverse effects on mental health into adulthood, but the nuances of these outcomes are not well understood. A study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders explores how childhood trauma impacts specific aspects of...
A team of researchers explored treatment patterns among people diagnosed with anxiety or PTSD following a traumatic brain injury. The findings, published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, revealed that these individuals are more likely to be prescribed psychotropic...
New research indicates that anxious people tend to engage in higher levels of bedtime procrastination, which in turn explains why they tend to experience more sleep problems. The findings have been published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology.
An eight-year study examined the relationship between adolescent coping strategies and social anxiety. Findings suggest that a lack of adaptive coping strategies is related to the development of social anxiety. Those subjects who demonstrated maladaptive coping mechanisms when experiencing stress...
A recent study tested a new experimental procedure that may help researchers investigate treatments for social anxiety disorder. The study authors developed a social stress test that induces symptoms of social anxiety disorder and can be conducted entirely online. The...
Pavlovian threat conditioning (also known as fear conditioning) is a basic form of learning in which an animal or person comes to associate a particular stimulus with a negative outcome. New research, published in Behaviour Research and Therapy, indicates that...