Current research has demonstrated that stress is a contributing factor to many chronic disease states in our world today. Diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol are just a few health conditions in which stress can worsen these disease states in individuals. Stress is apparent in individuals with chronic disease but can also appear in those dealing with high-performance anxiety such as student-athletes. Stress does not discriminate in how it can affect people physically, mentally, and emotionally. Even though stress can affect a diverse range of people, there may be similarities among different groups affected by stress such that lessons can learn from each other. For example, research has shown the overwhelming benefits of exercise on physical health and mental health. Yet, even though athletes train consistently, they can still feel the adverse effects of stress on their mental well-being and emotional health. This feeling may be due to the pressure incited to perform at a high level during athletic events. Another adverse area of stress for athletes is the reality that their career will at some point end. This reality may be in their early 30s or 40s. The feelings of loss of purpose are common for many prior athletes and instills additional fear in navigating life direction after sports. In contrast, chronically ill patients go through different events because their stress is directly due to their illness. However, many studies reveal similarities between athletes and those who have a chronic disease regarding mental and emotional coping mechanisms for stress. This thesis addresses these similarities and discusses how both groups even though they have vital differences can learn from one another when dealing with stress.

Recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) is a chronic pain problem of childhood and adolescence. It is not yet clear whether RAP should be considered a single psychosocial diagnosis or a distinct set of physical symptoms. Reported prevalence rates of RAP vary greatly, especially for the adolescent age group. Stress and depression have been linked to RAP in clinic and community samples. More research is needed on treatments of RAP using larger sample sizes, appropriate controls, and multi-component treatments. Important areas to explore include RAP in non-Caucasian samples, and the relation of RAP to coping strategies. The current study examined the relationship between stress, coping, and abdominal pain in a large, multi-ethnic sample. In addition to psychological variables, prevalence of RAP in multicultural high school students was examined. One hundred fifty-one high school students completed a series of questionnaires which evaluated the students' abdominal pain, stressful life events, daily subjective stress, and coping strategies. The ethnic comparisons in this study were between Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, and White Americans. Four outliers were removed from the sample. The diagnostic criteria for abdominal pain were met by 7.3% of the sample. This is similar to rates of RAP in younger samples. There were no significant mean differences in abdominal pain between gender or ethnic groups. Gender, negative life events, common “hassles,” active coping, and passive coping predicted a significant amount of the variability in reported abdominal pain. Active coping and common hassles seem to be the most important factors in the prediction of pain. Implications of these findings and limitations in the current RAP literature are discussed.

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by an intense preoccupation with an imagined or real defect of an individual's physical appearance (Sobanski & Schmidt, 2000). This present study was an extension of the work of Mayville(1998, 1999), who studied BDD symptoms in a non-clinical multi-ethnic adolescent population. The results of Mayville's (1998, 1999) study indicated that African Americans have a more positive body image compared to any other ethnic group, and females demonstrated less satisfaction with their physical appearance in comparison to males. In addition to replicating Mayville's study (1998, 1999), this study focused on the component of social anxiety symptoms, and its relationship to body dysmorphic symptoms. It is imperative to study the relationship between BDD and social anxiety in adolescents, as there may be diminished functioning in terms of social and academic performance for those who are diagnosed with BDD (Albertini & Phillips, 1999). In this study scores were examined on two different scales: Social Physique Anxiety Scale (SPAS, Hart, Leary, & Rejeski, 1989) and the Fear of Negative Evaluations Scale (FNE, Watson & Friend, 1969) with their respective relationships to scores on the Body Image Rating Scale (BIRS, Mayville, Gipson, and Katz, 1997). As expected the SPAS contributed significantly and substantially to the prediction of scores on the BIRS in comparison to the FNE. The large squared semi-partial correlation coefficients in this study indicate that there is some overlap between the constructs of body dysmorphic disorder symptoms and the two measures of social anxiety symptoms. In this study, however, the Sex variable and Ethnicity variable did not contribute substantially to predicting scores on the BIRS.

Reflexive and voluntary performance in four test batteries was examined in 12 able-bodied and 12 disabled (6 spinal cord injured, 6 with cerebral palsy) subjects. The batteries, administered pre and post to 4 weeks of training, consisted of tests for patellar tendon tap reflex, phasic vibratory response, knee extension isometric strength, reaction time, and speed of movement. Training involved 120 patellar tendon taps per session, 3 sessions per week. The training patellar taps were paired with an auditory tone; one half of the subjects were trained with a loud (100 db) auditory tone, the remaining were trained with a soft (50 db) auditory tone. No significant difference was observed for reflexive agonist and antagonist EMG amplitude and reflexive peak force during the training or posttraining sessions. The expected habituation of reflexive response was not observed, but the impact force to elicit a maximum reflexive response increased across sessions. These findings suggest that the muscle spindles became less responsive with repeated sessions, but this decreased responsiveness was masked by the increased impact force. Pre to posttraining increases were observed in: tendon tap reflex long motor time and long reflex time; phasic vibratory response; maximum isometric knee extension strength; and velocity of movement in both groups. Posttraining changes in reflexive and voluntary responses were likely due to increased Ia afferent presynaptic inhibition and a more efficient muscle contraction. Auditory effects on reflexive and voluntary responses were mainly limited to a shortening of reaction premotor time especially in the disabled group. The loud tone increased the agonist EMG during the strength test, without a concurrent increase in maximum strength. Between group differences, with regard to spinal and supraspinal influences during the reflex profile, indicated that the gain in reflexive response was greater for the disabled subjects under spinal conditions, and greater for the able-bodied subjects under supraspinal conditions. Another finding revealed greater absolute antagonist reflexive responses, and greater relative antagonist voluntary responses of the disabled group compared to the able-bodied group under all conditions. Adaptations across training sessions and descriptive differences between groups provide insight into future research and rehabilitation strategies.

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No description available.

<div>Ketogenic diets (KDs) are high-fat low-carbohydrate diets that can exert positive effects on physical and neurological health. The more established therapeutic effects of KD are for treating epilepsy and diabetes. However, KD protective effects may apply to other inflammation related disorders associated with Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation, such as mood disorders. Chronic stress has been shown to elevate cytokine levels, disrupt neuroendocrine homeostasis, and cause anxiety and depressive-like behavior in animal models. In vitro experiments have shown that ketone bodies, a metabolite produced while on KD, can prevent the production of cytokines elevated in response to chronic stress and other pre-clinical experiments have suggested that ketone bodies can prevent anxiety-like behavior. Although this suggests that KDs have anti-inflammatory and mood stabilizing potential, these effects have yet to be explored. In this experiment, we assessed the behavioral and neuroendocrine effects of KD using male and female Long-Evans rats. Animals underwent three weeks of Chronic Mild Stress (CMS) while on KD or control Chow (CH). Body weight and food intake data were recorded daily, and depressive-like behaviors were assayed after the three weeks. Plasma Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (HB), Corticosterone (CORT) and Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1) were measured after behavior testing, along with hypothalamic Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone (CRH) and Neuropeptide Y (NPY) mRNA expression. CMS induced weight loss and reduced food intake in the control-diet groups, however the KD-fed male and female rats were resistant to CMS-induced weight loss and reduced food take. Female rats fed KD were protected from CMS-induced reductions in plasma CORT and hypothalamic NPY expression. Collectively, these data suggest anti-depressant potential of KDs against chronic stress, particularly in females. </div>

<p>Psychological trauma can literally disrupt life&rsquo;s flow by damaging brain and bodily systems. When a flashback to a traumatic event is triggered in a person suffering from traumatic stress, or PTSD, key functions in the brain malfunction and are deactivated, potentially causing massive disassociation. In addition, trauma can cause chronic hyperarousal, resulting from the body&rsquo;s malfunctioning autonomic nervous system&rsquo;s defensive response of fight, flight, or freeze. To cope with these damaged bodily and brain systems and processes detrimental acts of hyperfocus and numbing are often employed by sufferers of trauma. However these obstructions can be cleared though movement practices: top-down and bottom-up regulation methods, innately embedded in certain movement and dance disciplines such as yoga and creative dance, have shown to aide in trauma recovery. This opens the possibility that a dance/movement instructor, using trauma-conscious curriculum and facilitation techniques, can use their highly structured movement practices to engage with top-down and bottom up regulation practices to not only instruct students suffering from trauma, but offer opportunities to engage in treatment. </p>

<p> The use of social technologies continues to grow at a rapid pace. Such technologies free individuals to communicate with one another in a multitude of ways without the need to be face-to-face in the same room This study was designed to explore, based on a small sample of case studies, the usefulness of one way that social technology is employed today, collaborative email letter writing (CELW), when used in conjunction with live therapy sessions to counsel a self-injuring population. Currently, most email counseling consists of exchanging communications without live clinical intervention (Heinlein, Welfel, Richmond, &amp; Rack, 2003). While self-injury behavior (SIB) is on the rise (Conterio &amp; Lader, 1998; Zila &amp; Kiselica, 2001), there is little evidence that shows that either traditional or systemic postmodern therapies are useful in treating SIB in adolescents or young adults. Alternative forms of communication, such as letter writing (Freedman &amp; Combs, 1996; White, 1995; White &amp; Epston, 1990), have proven to benefit a variety of clients who have a difficult time expressing emotions in live therapy sessions. However, research studies on CELW as an ongoing therapeutic technique with clients are extremely limited. To address this gap, I conducted a qualitative case study on a small sample of clients in which I explored how CELW could be used with certain clients. Considering the in-depth understanding of the therapeutic participant-observer, therapist CELW, client CELW, and the researcher's experience, I sought to establish the meanings of multiple perspectives for analysis of this underused therapeutic technique. I used a cross-case analysis of three individual cases to provide both an in-depth understanding of the similarities and differences across three case studies, and to understand how clinicians might incorporate this additional resource into their clinical practices.</p>

<p> This study employed a quantitative correlational research design to determine the extent of the relationship between professionals' spirituality, stress, and different dimensions of burnout in the workplace. Instruments included the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Maslach Burnout Inventory &ndash; General Survey (MBI-GS) Burnout Inventory. The study was conducted among male and female full-time employees working in an office setting located in the United States of America (<i> N</i> = 92) using an internet-based questionnaire service. Results indicate that spirituality was positively correlated with the Exhaustion and Cynicism burnout dimensions, and negatively correlated with the professional efficacy burnout dimension. The findings suggest that spirituality is a crucial predictor of occupational stress and burnout in the workplace and could be used as a coping strategy.</p><p>