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