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A new study published in PLOS One looked at depression, anxiety, and happiness in dog owners and potential dog owners during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. “Our study is about the role dogs may have played on owners’ psychological wellbeing when most of the USA was under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” study author Francois Martin told us. “We wanted to know if dog owners would show less signs of depression and anxiety, and if they would report a greater sense of wellbeing.” [More]

A new study published in the Lancet Planetary Health Journal looked at a global survey on climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change. “We know from smaller studies that young people around the world experience climate anxiety and we also know that young people can feel betrayed by those in power who are failing to act on the climate crisis,” study author Elizabeth Marks told us. “However, large scale research was lacking and we wanted to know how widespread these experiences are.” [More]

Carter Weinstein is a freshman at Georgetown University and the author of Conquering Fear: One Teen's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety. Weinstein believes so many teens have anxiety currently because of increasing stress due to the pandemic. “Teens today have an unprecedented amount of stress due to an immense amount of schoolwork, social pressure, and academic competition and college preparation,” Weinstein told us. "Teens are prone to have anxiety already, thus the pandemic (restricting them from seeing their friends, secluding them behind a screen, etc.) has only made matters worse.” [More]

New research presented at the 59th Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting looked at the link between an increased risk of heart disease and stress hormone sensitivity. The study has been published in the Journal of Hormone Research in Paediatrics. “In clinical practice, healthy subjects are characterized by differences in glucocorticoid sensitivity that may influence the therapeutic outcome and any adverse effects of synthetic glucocorticoids,” study author Nicolas C. Nicolaides told us. “Thus, it would be very helpful for clinicians to have a fast and accurate methodology that would enable the classification of individuals based on their tissue sensitivity to glucocorticoids." [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Behavioural Brain Research looked at how chronic vicarious social defeat stress (cVSDS) attenuates newborn neuronal cell survival in a mouse hippocampus. “In the current research, we examined influences of psychological stress on the adult hippocampal neurogenesis, which is assumed to be inseparably connected to the depressive states,” study author Akiyoshi Saitoh told us. [More]

You feel it ahead of a big exam. Your stomach churns before a job interview. Your heart races before you board a plane. Stress is something everyone is likely to experience at some point. But stress doesn’t have to be an obstacle. In fact, it can be a useful tool. A recent study from the University of Rochester found that re-evaluating perceptions of stress can improve mental health, wellbeing and ultimately, success. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology looked at sex differences in specific aspects of two animal tests of anxiety-like behavior. “We studied male and female rodent models to better understand sex differences in biological responses related to anxiety,” study author Thatiane De Oliveira Sergio told us. “We used procedures that let us measure a lot of different aspects of the anxiety behavior.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Occupational Health looked at physical relaxation for occupational stress in healthcare workers in a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. "Our study evaluates various physical methods of relaxation (yoga, massage therapy, progressive muscle relaxation, and stretching exercises) on their effectiveness in reducing work-related stress in healthcare workers,” study author Michael Zhang told us. [More]

COVID-19 has had a significant mental health impact on both residents and staff members in aged care facilities. Research published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry found those working or residing in aged care facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic are experiencing high levels of stress and negative mental health impacts. [More]

A recent article on APA PsycNet examined how we regulate stress responses. The authors found that “ altering second-level valuation systems—shifting the valuation of stress from “is bad for me” to “can be good for me”—fundamentally changes the overarching goal of stress regulation from reducing stress to optimizing stress responses to achieve valued goals.” However, we live in a culture that tends to view all stress as negative. Can we change the narrative about stress? [More]