emotional Stress

Imagine Taking A Pill That Would Clear Away Any Feelings Of Guilt And Regret

At the University of California at Irvine, experiments in rats indicate that the brain's hormonal reactions to fear can be inhibited, softening the formation of memories and the emotions they evoke. At New York University, researchers are mastering the means of short-circuiting the very wiring of primal fear. At Columbia University one Nobel laureate's lab has discovered the gene behind a fear-inhibiting protein, uncovering a vision of "fight or flight" at the molecular level. In Puerto Rico, at the Ponce School of Medicine, scientists are discovering ways to help the brain unlearn fear and inhibitions by stimulating it with magnets. And at Harvard University, survivors of car accidents are already swallowing propranolol pills, in the first human trials of that common cardiac drug as a means to nip the effects of trauma in the bud.

New Science Raises the Specter of a World Without Regret   Village Voice January 22 - 28, 2003

Psyciatirc Drugs, Placebos and the Downfall of Modern Psychiatry

The drugs interfere with normal social, intellectual and emotional functioning, so many patients want to stop them. But since sudden termination often produces explosion, and gradual reduction - the preferred method - is unavailable, patients find themselves in a catch-22 situation.

Further aggravating this dilemma is the insistence of most psychiatrists that medications be continued indefinitely despite patients' objections. This difference can transform the doctor-patient relationship, which should be a major positive therapeutic force, into one which is adversarial and, therefore, overtly anti-therapeutic.

Many patients believe the drugs have helped them because they improved after starting to take them. But most of whatever improvement occurs - and that improvement is much less with major mental illness today than it was before the drug era - is based on the physician's expectations and the patient's acceptance

How Drugs Destroyed Psychiatry   RedFlagsDaily February 19, 2003

Emotional Stress in Pregnancy may cause Birth Defects

We know that stress alters body physiology and hence no reason this is not transmitted to the foetus via the placenta.....

Pregnancy stress 'causes defects' BBC News Friday, 8 September, 2000

Infant sleep disorders and maternal post-natal depression are serious problems

When an infant is not getting enough sleep, neither is the mother. When a mother is experiencing post natal depression, her emotions may be affecting the infant's ability to sleep.

This 2002 study in BMJ examines this serious, interrelated problem. It fails however to look at other potential causes and tendencies of depression in the mother. The International Cesarean Awareness Network has a wonderful section on postpartum depression . Traumatic delivery is a definate contributing factor to a woman's potential for post partum depression, with c-sections contributing significantly.

In the child, continuous crying due to their experience of birth trauma (both physical and emotional) contributes further to the mother's suceptability. This ScienceDaily article addresses the long term effects of pain and stress on newborns .

Just another reason for us to care for more pregnant women offering them the potential of a safer, easier birth with chiropractic care and to educate them about their birth options prior to birth

Read more research about chiropractic and sleep disorders in children

Mom's Anxiety Affects Fetus

Mothers who are "stressed out" during pregnancy may be restricting arterial blood flow to their babies, according to a report published in BMJ. The trial which enrolled 100 women found that, "Of the most anxious group, 27% had an increase d resistance index of clinical concern, compared with 4% in the less anxious group." Uterine artery resistance was assessed using Doppler ultrasound. The study's authors respeculated that the restricted blood flow may account for the smaller birth weights seen in babies of anxious mothers.

Teixeira JMA, Fisk, NM, Glover V   Association between maternal anxiety in pregnancy and increased uterine artery resistance index: cohort based study   Brit Med Jour 1999 (Jan 16);   318 (7177):   153-157

Maternal antenatal anxiety and children's behavioural/emotional problems at 4 years

Animal experiments suggest that maternal stress and anxiety during pregnancy have long-term effects on the behaviour of the offspring. Data were collected on multiple antenatal and postnatal assessments of maternal anxiety and depression, antenatal and obstetric risks, psychosocial risks and children's behavioural/emotional problems

Conclusions: There could be a direct effect of maternal mood on foetal brain development, which affects the behavioural development of the child.

THOMAS G. O'CONNOR, PhD   Maternal antenatal anxiety and children's behavioural/ emotional problems at 4 years   British Journal of Psychiatry 2002;   180:   502-508