A "Lesser Wrong" Model of Assessing the Neural Mechanisms of Anxiety
The objective of our class and the neuroscientific community is to understand the complex neural pathways of the brain. The neural mechanisms of anxiety have long puzzled researchers. Thus far, the belief is that two structures of the limbic system known as the lateral septum and the amygdala regulate anxiety. The present paper will examine the role of the lateral septum and the amygdala in propagating anxiety (supporting the brain = behavior paradigm), discuss the neural connection that exist between the Am and LS, consider the effects that benzodiazepine anxiolytics have on this neural connection, as well as introduce findings from my current research that supports the "lesser wrong" model of anxiety.
Amygdala and Anxiogenesis
The amygdala (hereafter cited as Am) is a known anxiety producing or anxiogenic structure (1). Anxiety is assessed through a number of animal studies that examine fear and stress responses in the presence of aversive stimuli such as a shock. Fear and stress responses in animals are good measures of anxiety because they correlate well with the symptoms observed in people with generalized anxiety disorder. For instance, studies that assess anxiety in animal paradigms report increased stress induced ulceration, increased heart beat, and increased galvanic skin conductance. Similarly, individuals diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder show upset stomach, increased hear rate, and increased sweating. Hence, anxiety, fear, and stress responses are closely related.
Fear responses are behavioral changes that occur in the presence of aversive stimuli. The most common behavioral response (in rats) to aversive stimuli is behavioral arrest also referred to as "freezing". Behavioral arrest occurs when the animal "freezes following a cue for the aversive stimulus. Davis (1992) describes the freezing behavior as the animal's apprehensive expectation that something bad is about to happen.
Stress responses are physiological changes that occur in response to aversive stimuli. Stress responses in animal and human studies include pupil dilation, increased heart beat, decreased salivation (or dry mouth), increase galvanic skin conductance (or increased sweating) and frequent defecation (or diarrhea). Studies have shown that during the presentation of a tone that forewarns the animal of a shock, the animal show a multitude of stress responses including the ones listed above.
Similarly, in a fMRI scan study, human subjects showed Am activation in instructed fear or anticipatory anxiety task. In this task, subjects are manipulated into believing that they will receive a shock when a threatening stimulus is presented.
Kurayama, Matsuzawa, Komiya, Nakazawa, Yoshida, Shimizu, (2012) confirmed that these neutral stimuluses deed indeed has an effect and played a role in fear conditioning in people. The case showed that Treena had indeed learned to be scared of the incident and it proceeded to become a cue for to get anxious and get panic attacks. It has been claimed that patients with panic disorder exhibited fear potentiated startle responses to safety cues and therefore reduced discrimination between safety and danger signals during acquisition, indicating that the safety signal was processed as the aversive event in contrast to the danger signal (Nees, Heinrich, Flor, 2015). It also showed that the her failing to answer the question had affected her in other classes when she would not participate in other classes hence, this showed that the neutral stimulus has developed and grew into a conditioned stimulus which evoked feelings of fear and anxiety in her, in other words it had become a cue for her to be scared and
...tized to it. Aversive conditioning involves replacing an old, positive response to a stimulus with a new, negative one. An example of this is instead of feeling relaxed after smoking a cigarette, a therapist might make a patient feel another negative emotion like embarrassment or fear. The last method of behavioral therapy is operand conditioning, which has been used for years and is simply rewarding someone for good behavior and withdrawing the reward for bad.
...n fear and arousal (Schmahl, Berne, Krause, Kleindienst, Valerius, Vermetten &ump; Bohus, 2009). The work of dampening this arousal is carried out by the pre-frontal region of the brain. Brain imaging has revealed that personal differences in the capacity to activate areas of the prefrontal cerebral cortex, which is believed to activate inhibitory responses, predict the capacity to repress negative feelings (Williams Sidis, Gordon &ump; Meares, 2006). Acetylcholine and norepinephrine in addition to serotonin are the main neurotransmitters in the circuit involved in the regulation of emotions. Imbalance of these neurotransmitters in conjunction with increased GABA activity is believed to have the capacity to result in intense mood swings similar to those of borderline personality disorder (Schmahl, Berne, Krause, Kleindienst, Valerius, Vermetten &ump; Bohus, 2009).
In recent years, there’s evidence to suggest that mental health nurses experience stress and burned out related to their work, Stress, as an result of stressful workplaces (Bernard et al,2000).
The idea of pasteurizing milk bagan in the 1920s, and later became an aspect of everyday life in the 1950s. Milk that has undergone this process is normally prefered since it is sterilized, therefore lowering the chance of human illness. However, it’s not the 1950s anymore, and the idea of pasteurizing milk has lost its luster for the people that now prefer raw milk. Unlike the milk that most Americans consume, raw milk has not been pasteurized, or quickly heated to a high temperature to kill harmful bacteria. In raw milk, these bacterias haven’t been removed, leaving people at risk. E. Coli, salmonella, and listeria are only some of the bacteria that raw milk carries, all of which can cause sickness, or even death. Common affects of consuming raw milk are diarrhea, stomach cramping, and vomiting, but it's the rare ones: kidney failure,paralysis, and death that causes raw milk to be illegal in half of the states and illegal to carry over state lines in its final form. Nevertheless, people still actively seek out and consume raw milk because they believe its nutritional values to be greater. Controversies surround this topic on whether organic food
In both the clinical experience and the class settings, we have learned how the process of DKA can be life threatening, the importance of following the recommended medical regimen, and the various food types. Financial constraints sometimes make it difficult for families and individuals with DM1to comply with the medical and dietary recommendations.
Beck, A. T., & Steer, R. (1993). Beck Anxiety Inventory 1993 Edition. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
... Heinrichs S. C and Carey R. J (2011) Treatment of addiction and anxiety using extinction approaches: Neural mechanisms and their treatment implications, Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, 97, pp. 619–625.
One of the most serious issues in nursing, that can affect a nurses career is nursing burn- out. According to the article “Where have all the nurses gone”, current nurses that are practicing, report high rates of job dissatisfaction (which is part of burn out) and 1 of 5 nurses may quit nursing in the next 5 years (Dworkin, 2002). Burnout is associated with nurses not coming in to work, not feeling satisfied when doing their job, high turnover rates and a lack of commitment to the work (Katisfaraki, 2013). If a nurse becomes burned- out, they may not take care of their patients as well and could make mistakes with medication administration. A study performed in the United States by Dr. Jeannie Cimiottti, shows that hospitals with high burn-out rates among nurses have higher levels UTI’s, and surgical infections (World, 2012). Nursing burnout not only affects the nurse, but it also affects the patient, the nurses’ colleagues, and the nurses’ family; nursing burn out often leads to emotional exhaustion and depression, that can effect relations and communication between the nurse effected and the person they are communicating with. This paper will cover what burn-out is, who is susceptible to burn out, and treatment and prevent nursing burn out.
The nursing profession is one of the most physically, emotionally, and mentally taxing career fields. Working long shifts, placing other’s needs before your own, dealing with sickness and death on a regular basis, and working in a high stress environment are all precursors to developing occupational burnout in the nursing profession. Burnout refers to physical, emotional and mental exhaustion, which can lead to an emotionally detached nurse, who feels hopeless, apathetic, and unmotivated. Burnout extends beyond the affected nurse and begins to affect the care patients receive. Researchers have found that hospitals with high burnout rates have lower patient satisfaction scores (Aiken et al 2013). There are various measures that nurses can take
There are three accepted definitions of stress: 1. Stimulus model - Stress is an external stimulus that places demand on the individuals’ physiology. 2. Response model - Stress is regarded as the responses (both external behaviour and internal/ph...
DuPuis, E. Melanie. Nature's Perfect Food: How Milk Became America's Drink. New York: New York University Press, 2002. Print.
During this response certain hormones are released, which speed the heart rate, slow digestion, and reroute blood flow, in order to elicit the desired response of fight or flight. The behavioral response to stress involves coping. “Coping refers to active efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate the demands created by stress” (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, pp.... ... middle of paper ... ...
...nt anxiety. The operant conditioning takes place when the person emits avoidance in the presence of the neutral stimulus, since the stimulus never created the initial anxiety. by escaping the CS and getting an immediate reduction in its fear-eliciting properties, the avoidance response is maintained. Another etiology of phobias is offered by social learning theory, which state that watching parental avoidance strategies learns phobic behaviors. Cognitive theorists emphasize the role played by expectancies in potentially dangerous consequences versus neutral situations. Expectancies acts like a mediator between the two. Avoidance responding is acquired in the presence of the warning sign through cognitive process of comparing expectations for when and when not to respond. In this way an aversive outcome is maintained as a consequence of interacting with anxiety.
Stressors initiate a response within the organism and causes changes in the body, specifically responses in the body’s autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system has two branches: the sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic autonomic nervous system helps the body deal with the stress it encounters, initiating the ‘fight or flight’ response. Once the threat has passed, the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system will take over, relaxing the body. There is a balance between these two in a healthy person. However, when someone stays on guard, using the sympathetic autonomic nervous system, all sorts of physical effects can