BACKGROUND The aim of this open trial was to examine the influence of acute bright light exposure on anxiety in older and young adults. METHODS This study was ancillary to a complex 5-day laboratory experiment testing phase-responses to light at all times of the day. On 3 consecutive days, participants were exposed to bright light (3,000 lux) for 3 hours. The Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety I...

Recent theory and empirical research have suggested that fear and anxiety are distinct processes with separable neurobiological substrates. Furthermore, a laboratory procedure has been developed to manipulate fear versus anxiety independently via administration of predictable or unpredictable electric shock, respectively. Benzodiazepines appear to selectively reduce anxiety but not fear in this...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the anxiolytic effect of cannabidiol (CBD) in humans follows the same pattern of an inverted U-shaped dose-effect curve observed in many animal studies. Sixty healthy subjects of both sexes aged between 18 and 35 years were randomly assigned to five groups that received placebo, clonazepam (1 mg), and CBD (100, 300, and 900 mg). The subjects ...

BRAINSTORMS is a monthly section of The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry aimed at providing updates of novel concepts emerging from the neurosciences that have relevance to the practicing psychiatrist. From the Neuroscience Education Institute in Carlsbad, Calif., and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego. Reprint requests to: Stephen M. Stahl, M.D., Ph.D., Editor...

Blood-Injury-Injection Phobia (BIIP) is a subtype of specific phobia, characterized by fear and avoidance of seeing blood, an injury, or receiving an injection. In the current case report, we describe the treatment of BIIP in a young man with mental retardation. The multicomponent treatment consisted of fading (graduated exposure), modeling, noncontingent and differential reinforcement, presess...

Until recently, claims for the psychological benefits of physical exercise have tended to precede supportive evidence. Acutely, emotional effects of exercise remain confusing, both positive and negative effects being reported. Results of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are more consistent in indicating that aerobic exercise training has antidepressant and anxiolytic effects and protect...

We have assessed the efficacy and safety of a system which allowed 20 patients undergoing day-case anaesthesia to operate a target-controlled infusion of propofol to provide anxiolytic premedication. A target-controlled infusion of propofol was started with a target blood concentration of 1 microgram ml-1, and the patient was allowed to increase the target by 0.2 microgram ml-1 by operating a c...

The aim of the present study was to examine a potential anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like action of (+)-7-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin hydrobromide (7-OH-DPAT), a preferential dopamine D(3) receptor agonist, and N-{4-[4-(2-methoxyphenyl)-1-piperazinyl]butyl}-2-naphthylcarboxamide (BP 897), a partial dopamine D(3) receptor agonist, in male Wistar rats. Diazepam or imipramine were used ...

Oxytocin reduces amygdala responses to threatening social stimuli in males and has been suggested to facilitate approach-related processing by either decreasing anxiety or intensifying salience. The current administration study tested whether oxytocin either reduces or enhances amygdala responses during threat approach in a placebo-controlled randomized, double-blind, between-subjects design wi...

BACKGROUND Burn patients experience high levels of predictable anxiety during dressing changes while anti-anxiety drugs cannot control these anxieties. The nurses can limit the side effects of medications by undertaking complementary therapies. Hand pressure massage was introduced as a technique that can reduce these anxieties. This study aimed to investigate the effect of hand pressure massage...