Cognitive distancing, cognitive restructuring, and cardiovascular recovery from stress

The Effects of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Biofeedback on HRV Reactivity and Recovery During and After Anger Recall Task for Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

Patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) often experience anger events before cardiovascular events. Anger is a psychological risk factor and causes underlying psychophysiological mechanisms to lose balance of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The heart rate variability (HRV) was the common index for ANS regulation. It has been confirmed that heart rate variability biofeedback (HRV-BF) restored ANS balance in patients with CAD during the resting state. However, the effects of HRV-BF during and after the anger event remain unknown. This study aimed to examine the effects of HRV-BF on ANS reactivity and recovery during the anger recall task in patients with CAD. This study was a randomized control trial with a wait-list control group design, with forty patients in the HRV-BF group (for six sessions) and 44 patients in the control group. All patients received five stages of an anger recall task, including baseline, neutral recall task, neutral recovery, anger recall task, and anger recovery. HRV reactivity in the HRV-BF group at the post-test was lower than that in the control group. HRV recovery at the post-test in the HRV-BF group was higher than that in the control group. The HRV-BF reduced ANS reactivity during anger events and increased ANS recovery after anger events for CAD patients. The possible mechanisms of HRV-BF may increase total HRV, ANS regulation, and baroreflex activation at anger events for patients with CAD, and may be a suitable program for cardiac rehabilitation.

An Integrated Mechanistic Model of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement for Opioid-Exposed Mother-Infant Dyads

A growing body of neurobiological and psychological research sheds light on the mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of opioid use disorder and its relation to parenting behavior. Perinatal opioid use is associated with risks for women and children, including increased risk of child maltreatment. Drawing from extant data, here we provide an integrated mechanistic model of perinatal opioid use, parenting behavior, infant attachment, and child well-being to inform the development and adaptation of behavioral interventions for opioid-exposed mother-infant dyads. The model posits that recurrent perinatal opioid use may lead to increased stress sensitivity and reward dysregulation for some mothers, resulting in decreased perceived salience of infant cues, disengaged parenting behavior, disrupted infant attachment, and decreased child well-being. We conclude with a discussion of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement as a means of addressing mechanisms undergirding perinatal opioid use, parenting, and attachment, presenting evidence on the efficacy and therapeutic mechanisms of mindfulness. As perinatal opioid use increases in the United States, empirically informed models can be used to guide treatment development research and address this growing concern.

Managing the Crisis: How COVID‐19 Demands Interact with Agile Project Management in Predicting Employee Exhaustion

As a global pandemic, COVID‐19 impacts work‐related processes, placing strain upon many employees in project teams. Identifying process variables and potential organizational resources can play an important role in addressing employee mental health, both for the current pandemic and future crises. Based on an extension of the job demands–resources model, this paper introduces COVID‐19 demands as distal job demands, examining their influence on emotional exhaustion through proximal unfinished tasks. Furthermore, we suggest that agile project management acts as a buffering job resource in this relationship. In two studies, we drew samples from Germany (N = 168) and the USA (N = 292). Across studies, COVID‐19 demands had an indirect effect on emotional exhaustion, mediated by unfinished tasks. Furthermore, agile project management acts as a buffering job resource for individuals in Germany, attenuating the relationship between COVID‐19 demands, unfinished tasks and subsequent feelings of emotional exhaustion. In contrast, findings from Study 2 revealed that COVID‐19 demands were more strongly related to unfinished tasks and subsequent feelings of emotional exhaustion in the USA when individuals reported higher levels of agile project management. Taken together, our results indicate that project work under COVID‐19 fosters feelings of emotional exhaustion through the accumulation of unfinished tasks.

Factors associated with anxiety among the Lebanese population: the role of alexithymia, self-esteem, alcohol use disorders, emotional intelligence and stress and burnout

Objective: To assess factors associated with anxiety among a sample of the Lebanese population.Methods: A cross-sectional, conducted between November 2017 and March 2018, enrolled 789 participants. Anxiety was measured using the Hamilton Anxiety Scale. A cluster analysis was then performed with the identified factor scores to identify the different profiles of the participants.Results: A cluster analysis based on the three factors derived three mutually exclusive clusters, which form 29.62%, 34.54%, and 35.84% of all participants, respectively. The first cluster represented people in distress (low emotional intelligence, high depersonalisation, alcohol use disorder, burnout, stress, alexithymia and low self-esteem); the second one represented people with wellbeing (High emotional intelligence, low depersonalisation, low alcohol use disorder, low burnout, low stress, low alexithymia and high self-esteem), whereas cluster 3 represented people in between. Higher age (Beta  =  0.065) was significantly associated with higher anxiety, whereas being in cluster 2 (people with wellbeing) (Beta = -12.37) and cluster 3 (people in between) (Beta = -5.426) were significantly associated with lower anxiety compared to being in cluster 1 (people in distress).Conclusions: The findings of this study are overall consistent with those of epidemiologic community-based surveys and may help inform structural models of classification and prediction of anxiety disorders (ADs).

Social Ambivalence and Disease (SAD): A Theoretical Model Aimed at Understanding the Health Implications of Ambivalent Relationships

The protective influence of social relationships on health is widely documented; however, not all relationships are positive, and negative aspects of relationships may be detrimental. Much less is known about the relationships characterized by both positivity and negativity (i.e., ambivalence). This article provides a theoretical framework for considering the influence of ambivalent relationships on physical health, including reasons why ambivalence should be considered separately from relationships characterized as primarily positive (supportive) or primarily negative (aversive). We introduce the social ambivalence and disease (SAD) model as a guide to understanding the social psychological antecedents, processes, and consequences of ambivalent relationships. We conclude by highlighting gaps in the literature and features of the SAD model that may serve as a guide to future research on potential health-relevant pathways of ambivalent relationships.

Relational-Interdependent Self-Construal and Gender Predicting Blood Pressure Reactivity and Recovery From Stress in Early Adolescence

This study investigated the association between relational-interdependent self-construals (relational interdependence) and blood pressure reactivity and recovery from two types of peer stressors (i.e., relational and instrumental) and gender as a moderator of this association. One hundred and ninety-six early adolescents (M = 10.11 years) reported their relational interdependence and participated in a laboratory stress protocol in which their systolic and diastolic blood pressures before, during, and after experiencing peer stressors were assessed. Results indicated that for males only, those with high relational interdependence showed greater systolic blood pressure reactivity and, at a trend level, impaired recovery from instrumental stressors; females with high relational interdependence showed greater diastolic blood pressure reactivity to relational stressors.

Effects of coping flexibility on cardiovascular reactivity to task difficulty

OBJECTIVE

Coping flexibility refers to an individual's ability to effectively modify his or her coping behavior to better fit the nature of each stressful situation they encounter. More flexible coping is believed to produce more adaptive psychological functioning and physical health.

METHODS

We examined the relationship between coping flexibility and cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to psychological stress. Challenging tasks of two difficulty levels were presented to 24 men and 24 women aged 18 to 24years. Heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure were measured.

RESULTS

Change scores (from baseline to reactivity) for SBP and HR responses in the difficult task were higher than those in the easy task and were negatively correlated with coping flexibility during the difficult task but not the easy one.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that more flexible coping is associated with reduced CVR to a difficult task.

Cardiovascular sympathetic arousal in response to different mental stressors

The altered regulation of autonomic response to mental stress can result in increased cardiovascular risk. The laboratory tests used to simulate the autonomic responses to real-life stressors do not necessarily induce generalized sympathetic activation; therefore, the assessment of regulatory outputs to different effector organs could be important. We aimed to study the cardiovascular sympathetic arousal in response to different mental stressors (Stroop test, mental arithmetic test) in 20 healthy students. The conceivable sympathetic vascular index--spectral power of low frequency band of systolic arterial pressure variability (LF-SAP) and novel potential cardio-sympathetic index--symbolic dynamics heart rate variability index 0V% were evaluated. The heart and vessels responded differently to mental stress--while Stroop test induced increase of both 0V% and LF-SAP indices suggesting complex sympathetic arousal, mental arithmetic test evoked only 0V% increase compared to baseline (p<0.01, p<0.001, p<0.01, respectively). Significantly greater reactivity of LF-SAP, 0V%, heart rate (HR) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were found in response to Stroop test compared to mental arithmetic test potentially indicating the effect of different central processing (0V%, LF-SAP: p<0.001; HR, MAP: p<0.01). The different effectors' sympathetic responses to cognitive stressors could provide novel important information regarding potential pathomechanisms of stress-related diseases.

Emotional, Cognitive and Self-Enhancement Processes in Aggressive Behavior After Interpersonal Rejection and Exclusion

The relationship between exclusion or rejection and aggression is already well documented, but there is still a debate about the mechanisms that underlie this effect. In two studies we focused on the propensity to react aggressively (readiness for aggression) on the bases of emotional, cognitive or self-enhancement (personality-immanent) processes. In both studies we first measured readiness for aggression and then ego-depleted participants. Next, in Study 1 we excluded participants (n = 96) using an online ball throwing game and measured displaced aggressive behavior - intensity and duration of an unpleasant noise administrated to a stranger. In Study 2 participants (n = 140) were rejected by a peer on the basis of an interview that they gave and then could retaliate by reducing peer's chance for getting a job. The results show that exclusion effect on displaced aggression was moderated by cognitive readiness for aggression, while rejection effect on retaliatory aggression was shaped by emotional and personality-immanent readiness for aggression as well as ego-depletion. The results were discussed in light of the strength model of self-control by Baumeister, Vohs, and Tice (2007).

Age, Rumination, and Emotional Recovery From a Psychosocial Stressor

OBJECTIVES

Exposure to psychosocial stressors often elicits increases in negative affect and blood pressure (BP). Rumination, or thinking about a stressor after it passes, is associated with delayed recovery. Given that older age is associated with greater BP reactivity to psychosocial stressors, rumination may be more detrimental to the recovery of older adults than younger adults. The current study examined this question. We hypothesized that prolonged distress resulting from rumination has greater effects on the recovery of older than younger adults.

METHOD

Fifty-two older (M = 69 years) and 61 younger (M = 21 years) adults were exposed to a lab stressor. Afterwards, participants were randomly assigned to a rumination condition (n = 58) or a no-instruction control condition (n = 55).

RESULTS

Older participants in the rumination condition had delayed BP recovery relative to those in the control condition and all younger adults. Rumination did not influence affective recovery among any of the groups.

DISCUSSION

Rumination delays BP recovery among older adults, suggesting age-specific risks associated with different types of emotion regulation strategies.

Social stressors and cardiovascular response: influence of ambivalent relationships and behavioral ambivalence

OBJECTIVE

The protective influence of social relationships on health is well documented; however, not all relationships are positive and negative aspects of relationships may be detrimental. Relatively less is known about the relationships characterized by both positivity and negativity (i.e., ambivalence). The goal of this study was to examine the relative influence of ambivalence in relationship quality and social behavior on cardiovascular response.

METHODS

104 healthy young adults were randomly assigned to bring in either a supportive or ambivalent same-sex friend to the experiment. Participants were also randomly assigned to receive positive, negative, ambivalent or ambiguous feedback from their friend after giving a series of speeches. Cardiovascular response was obtained before, during, and after the social stressor (speech task).

RESULTS

Results indicate a significant effect of relationship type before, during, and after the stressor task. Adjusting for baseline, heart rate reactivity and anxiety was significantly higher among those assigned to ambivalent friends relative to those assigned to supportive friends during the stressor task (ps<.05). There was also a significant effect of behavioral feedback during the speech task, such that those receiving ambivalent messages had the greatest systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) reactivity (p<.05); however, there was no interaction between relationship and feedback conditions. Those in the ambivalent friend condition also exhibited significantly higher SBP, DBP, and anxiety during the baseline and recovery periods (ps<.05).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that both relationship quality and the actions of relationships may have a significant influence on health-relevant physiology.

Stress and its Expression According to Contemporary Science and Ancient Indian Wisdom: Perseverative Cognition and the Pañca kośas

Stress is recognised as the most challenging issue of modern times. Contemporary science has understood this phenomenon from one aspect and Indian philosophy gives its traditional reasons based on classical texts. Modern science has recently proposed a concept of perseverative cognition (PC) as an important reason for chronic stress. This has shown how constant rumination on an unpalatable event, object or person leads to various lifestyle disorders. Similarly classical yoga texts like the Taittiriya Upanishad, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Yoga Vashistha describe stress in their unique ways. We have here attempted a detailed classification, description, manifestation, and development of a disease and its management through these models. This paper in a nutshell projects these two models of stress and shows how they could be used in future for harmonious management of lifestyle disorders.

Differences in cardiovascular and central nervous system responses to periods of mental work with a break

The purpose of the present study was to examine how an inserted break influences the cardiovascular and central nervous system responses during periods of mental work. Twelve males conducted two 20-min periods of mental work with a 3-min break between them. Cardiovascular and central nervous system responses were measured continuously. In comparison to the baseline, cardiovascular responses increased continuously even after the inserted break, while, on the contrary, central nervous system activity did not significantly increase during the work periods but relaxed during the break. The work performance increased during the second work period. These results suggest that the inserted break proposed by VDT guidelines in Japan was effective in relaxing the central nervous system but was insufficient to prevent the increase in cardiovascular load. The results also imply that taking rests frequently is important not only to maintaining performance but also to preventing cumulative physiological workloads.

The effects of intrapersonal anger and its regulation in economic bargaining

Anger is a common cause of strained negotiations. This research investigated the effects of experiencing anger (Experiment 1) and regulating anger (Experiment 2) on ultimatum bargaining. Experiment 1 showed that relative to a control condition, angered participants proposed less fair offers and rejected more offers when bargaining with the person who angered them. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, and additionally showed that regulating anger via reappraisal and distraction both reduced anger. However, only reappraisal effectively reduced anger for the duration of the negotiation. Participants who reappraised proposed fairer offers than those in the distraction condition, but did not differ in offers accepted. This research may have implications for what emotion regulation strategy should be employed in economic bargaining. However, future research is required to determine the most effective timing and components of reappraisal for promoting beneficial outcomes in bargaining contexts.

The multiple systems model of angry rumination

Angry rumination is perseverative thinking about a personally meaningful anger-inducing event and is a risk factor for aggression. This article presents a new model for understanding angry rumination across five levels of analysis: cognitive, neurobiological, affective, executive control, and behavioral. The type of rumination that occurs at the cognitive level moderates affective responding and neurobiological activation, which influences executive control and aggression. Angry rumination recruits brain regions implicated in cognitive control, emotion regulation, negative affect, physiological arousal, social cognition, and self-reflection on emotional states. Moreover, angry rumination temporarily reduces self-control, which can increase aggression. The article suggests a functional account of angry rumination, identifies gaps in our knowledge, and proposes future research directions based on hypotheses derived from the model.

The immediate and delayed cardiovascular benefits of forgiving

BACKGROUND

The putative health benefits of forgiveness may include long-term buffering against cardiovascular reactivity associated with rumination. Although studies show short-term benefits of adopting a forgiving perspective, it is uncertain whether this perspective protects against repeated future rumination on offenses, which may be necessary for long-term health benefits. Also unclear is whether forgiveness offers unique benefits beyond simple distraction.

METHODS

Cardiovascular parameters (systolic blood pressure [SBP], diastolic blood pressure [DBP], and heart rate) were measured while 202 participants thought about a previous offense from an angry or forgiving perspective or were distracted. All participants were then distracted for 5 minutes, after which they freely ruminated on the offense.

RESULTS

Angry rumination initially yielded the greatest increase in blood pressure from baseline (mean [M] [standard deviation {SD}]: SBP = 9.24 [11.16]; M [SD]: DBP = 4.69 [7.48]) compared with forgiveness (M [SD]: SBP = 3.30 [6.48]; M [SD]: DBP = 1.51 [4.94]) and distraction (M [SD]: SBP = 4.81 [6.28]; M [SD]: DBP = 1.75 [3.80]), which did not differ from each other (p > .30). During free rumination, however, those who had previously focused on forgiveness showed less reactivity (M [SD]: SBP = 7.33 [9.61]; M [SD]: DBP = 4.73 [7.33]) than those who had been distracted (M [SD]: SBP = 10.50 [7.77]; M [SD]: DBP = 7.71 [6.83]) and those who previously focused on angry rumination (M [SD]: SBP = 12.04 [11.74]; M [SD]: DBP = 8.64 [12.63]). There were no differences for heart rate.

CONCLUSIONS

Forgiveness seems to lower reactivity both during the initial cognitive process and, more importantly, during mental recreations of an offense soon thereafter, potentially offering sustained protection, whereas effects of distraction appear transient.