With the rapid advancements in technology, researchers are seeking new ways to incorporate modern high-tech solutions such as virtual reality into treatment paradigms for stress. The current experiment explores the beneficial effects of immersing an individual into virtual reality after a stressful encounter. I examined the potential restorative effects of three unique immersive virtual reality environments by inducing stress and negative affect in sixty-nine participants and then randomly assigning them to freely explore one of three environments (a virtual nature setting, a virtual urban cityscape, or a neutral environment composed of solid geometric shapes) for ten minutes. Participants who explored the nature environment were found to have significantly improved affect (as measured by a standardized questionnaire), and significantly lower stress levels (as measured by self-report and skin-conductance levels) compared to those who explored the urban and geometric environments. The results suggest that virtual nature has restorative properties similar to real nature, and that simply immersing participants into a virtual nature setting can reduce stress. These results also suggest that the content of the virtual reality experience (i.e., whether it contains nature) is important in promoting restoration, and that in the absence of nature, stress levels remain unchanged.

Bakgrund: Stressrelaterad ohälsa ses idag som ett folkhälsoproblem. Många patienter söker sig i första hand till distriktssköterskor i primärvården för dessa hälsoproblem. Syfte: Att belysa de faktorer av betydelse i det hälsofrämjande arbetet för patienter i primärvården som besväras av stressrelaterad ohälsa. Metod: En integrativ litteraturstudie med granskning och analys av kvantitativa och kvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar samt artiklar som utgjorts av mixad metod. Analysen har följt en stegvis analys som utmynnat i att textenheter med liknande innebörd bildat kategorier och underkategorier. Resultat: Studien baseras på 16 vetenskapliga artiklar och resulterade i två kategorier: betydelsen av fysiska faktorer och betydelsen av psykologiska faktorer som berör olika hälsofrämjande metoder och insatser. Sammanfattningsvis kan patienter i primärvården som besväras av stressrelaterad ohälsa bemötas av distriktssköterska som ger vägledning och rådgivning. Patienter kan sedan implementera dessa råd och stöd i sin vardag för att minska sin upplevda stress. För att kunna arbeta hälsofrämjande och förebyggande mot stressrelaterad ohälsa behöver distriktssköterskan nationella riktlinjer och ökad utbildning inom området. Denna litteraturstudie skulle kunna ligga till grund för vidare forskning inom området. / Background: Stress-related ill health is seen as a public health problem today. Many patients seek primary health care nurses in the primary health care sector for these health problems. Purpose: To highlight the factors of importance in the health promotion of primary health care patients who are bothered by stress-related ill health. Method: An integrative literature study with the examination and analysis of quantitative and qualitative scientific articles as well as articles made by mixed method. The analysis has followed a step-by-step analysis that resulted in the fact that text units with similar meanings form themes. Result: The study is based on 16 scientific articles and resulted in two categories: the importance of physical factors and the importance of psychological factors that affect different health promotion methods and interventions. In summary, patients in primary care who are bothered by stress-related ill health can be treated by district nurses who provide guidance and counseling. Patients can then implement these advice and support in their daily lives to reduce their perceived stress. In order to be able to promote health promotion and prevention of stress-related ill health, the district nurse needs national guidelines and increased education in the area. This literature study could form the basis for further research in the field.

Objectives: We meta-Analyzed the effect of meditation on blood pressure (BP), including both transcendental meditation and non-Transcendental meditation interventions. Methods: We identified randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that examined the BP responses to meditation interventions through a systematic literature search of the PubMed, ABI/INFORM, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and CINAHL databases (from January 1980 to October 2015). We meta-Analyzed the change in SBP and DBP, stratified by type of meditation (transcendental meditation vs. nontranscendental meditation intervention) and by type of BP measurement [ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) vs. non-ABPM measurement]. Results: Nineteen studies met the eligibility criteria. Among the studies using the ABPM measurement, the pooled SBP effect estimate was-2.49mmHg [95% confidence interval (CI):-7.51, 2.53] for transcendental meditation intervention (statistically insignificant) and-3.77mmHg (95% CI:-5.33,-2.21) for nontranscendental meditation interventions, whereas the pooled DBP effect estimate was-4.26mmHg (95% CI:-6.21,-2.31) for transcendental meditation interventions and-2.18mmHg (95% CI:-4.28,-0.09) for nontranscendental meditation interventions. Among the studies using the non-ABPM measurement, the pooled SBP effect estimate from transcendental meditation interventions was-5.57mmHg (95% CI:-7.41,-3.73) and was-5.09mmHg with non-Transcendental meditation intervention (95% CI:-6.34,-3.85), whereas the pooled effect size in DBP change for transcendental meditation interventions was-2.86mmHg (95% CI:-4.27,-1.44) and was-2.57mmHg (95% CI:-3.36,-1.79) for nontranscendental meditation interventions. Conclusion: Non-Transcendental meditation may serve as a promising alternative approach for lowering both SBP and DBP. More ABPM-measured transcendental meditation interventions might be needed to examine the benefit of transcendental meditation intervention on SBP reduction.

This study aimed to assess the impact of an Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) intervention in a program serving women who survived Intimate partner violence (IPV). The biopsychosocial model, formulated by Engel, was the theoretical basis of this study. The impact of the MBSR intervention was assessed by qualitatively evaluating researcher notes and 5 participants' journals and reflections, and quantitatively evaluating 16 participants' self-reported stress, mindfulness, well-being, and optimism before and after the intervention. The themes that emerged from the qualitative data included participants' feelings of relaxation or balance, improved self-awareness, mindfulness exercises becoming easier over time, and improved intentionality. The Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS) self-report inventory was used to assess participants' mindfulness. The KIMS instrument is composed of four subscales: observe, describe, act, and accept. There were significant improvements in the describe and accept dimensions of mindfulness from pretest to posttest, after Bonferroni adjustment. The subscale describe measures how well the participants report being able to describe, identify, or observe mental phenomena in a nonjudgmental manner. There were no significant differences from pre to posttest on stress, well-being, and optimism, a non-equivalent dependent variable not expected to change as a result of the intervention, as optimism is presumed to be a stable personality trait. This study may provide a valuable link to the development of coping and treatment strategies for IPV survivors that can be integrated into therapy programs and individual treatment.

This paper explores how craft in general, and the tradition of machine knitting in particular, can act as support and an alternative method within healing processes connected to stress and burn-out. The paper uses creative writing and an intimate approach to reach for and highlight metaphors and epiphanies within the making of craft, discussed from micro and macro perspectives. The search for the garden of fiber delights includes discussions and reflections about the artistic practice in relation to thinkers as sociologists Bruno Latour and the actor-network theory, and Hartmut Rosa, and his theory about an accelerating society and the need for resonance. Some of the artists referenced in the paper are Hilma af Klint, Yayoi Kusama and Niki de Saint Phalle. The main wonder of this project and paper is: what will happen when I as an artist start to respond to the seed of resonance within, and not follow the norms and expectations emerged by capitalism causing stress? How can this knowledge be applied in the meeting with other people in need of healing and rest?

BACKGROUND: Patients visit the emergency department (ED) for life-threatening conditions, such as broken bones or chest pain, and non-life threatening conditions such as medication refills and pain management. Patients may make ED visits for non-life threatening conditions because they lack access to primary care. Research has shown that patients who are low-income, have chronic conditions, such as pain, and have depression are among those most likely to use the ED at a high rate. One of the most common reasons for visiting the ED is for pain relief, and therefore an intervention on patient self-management might prevent ED visits. The Program for Integrative Medicine and Health Care Disparities at Boston Medical Center (BMC) developed the Integrative Medicine Group Visit (IMGV) model to address chronic pain and depression among low-income patients, with the goal to improve patient’s adherence to self-management of pain and depression. The IMGV model consists of three non-pharmacologic components: evidence-based complementary medicine, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and group medical visits – all of which have been used to manage pain and depression. In a pre-post study of IMGV conducted in 2014, IMGV was associated with a significant decrease in ED utilization. Currently, the Program is conducting a randomized clinical trial (RCT) to compare a number of outcomes between the IMGV model and standard of care. The aim of this study was to determine if IMGV affects ED utilization in adult patients diagnosed with chronic pain and depression from an urban safety-net hospital population. METHODS: We conducted a secondary database analysis of participants enrolled in the IMGV RCT. The RCT is a two-armed study, and the medical chart review is part of the RCT. The study had patients who sought primary care at BMC and two affiliated outpatient urban community clinics. Only emergency visits made at BMC’s Emergency Department were included in our analysis. The inclusion criteria included reporting a pain level score > 4 on a 0-10 scale and having a score > 5 on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. The intervention consisted of 10 IMGV sessions over 21 weeks. The control was standard treatment of care. Data extraction was completed in two ways: (1) the BMC Clinical Data Warehouse was extracted from Epic and (2) hand review took place by research assistant. The primary outcomes included ED encounters at two different time points: (1) 90 days before Session 1 and (2) Session 1 to Session 9. The extracted information also included information about patients’ chief complaints and discharge diagnoses. A visit was categorized as being a preventable emergency visit (PEV) or a non-preventable emergency visit (NEPV). Descriptive statistics and two-sample T-tests were used to analyze outcomes. RESULTS: At baseline, 22 of the 31 participants made at least one ED visit in the 90 days before Session 1. At 9-weeks, 14 of the 26 participants made at least ED visit. From baseline to 9-weeks, the number of participants who had at least one ED visit decreased for the intervention group (13 to 4), but increased for the control group (9 to 10). From baseline to 9-weeks, the number of visits decreased among intervention participants (16 to 5) but increased among control participants (11 to 12). The two-sample T-test, which compared the ED utilization among the intervention and control, resulted in the mean values of -0.7333 and 0.0625, respectively. This result indicated that intervention participants had overall lower ED visit use from baseline to 9-weeks. Emergency visits were also analyzed by whether they were PEV or NPEV. Of the 27 ED visits at baseline, 21 were classified as being a PEV, and 6 were classified as being a NPEV. Of the 17 ED visits at 9-weeks, the number of visits decreased for both PEVs (21 to 13) and NPEV (6 to 4). CONCLUSION: We wanted to determine if the IMGV reduces ED utilization in patients with chronic pain and depression. Our results suggest that the IMGV model may be associated with reduced overall ED utilization and reduced preventable ED visits. However, one limitation is that we have a very small sample size. This finding needs to be produced in an adequately powered clinical trial. Further research might explore the mechanisms for how the IMGV model can lead to lower ED utilization among patients with chronic pain and depression.

No description available.

This thesis is an exploratory look into the use of mindfulness practice on in-depth nature experiences to determine if the practice has benefit to the participant, their outdoor experience, and overall connectedness with nature. An original research project examined three groups of adolescents from St. Michaels University School Outdoor Education program in Victoria, BC, Canada, as they hiked the Juan de Fuca trail. Two of the three groups undertook a simple mindfulness protocol to explore the outcomes. Based on participant-observation and interviews, mindfulness practice was determined to be a useful practice towards alleviating stress and anxiety associated with aspects of in-depth outdoor experiences, such as morning preparations. Participants who practiced mindfulness on the trip asked fewer questions about the future and remained present more often than those who did not practice mindfulness. A further finding was that there are aspects of mindfulness inherent in in-depth nature experiences, such as sitting around a fire. These inherent mindfulness moments should be encouraged as they provide benefit to trip experiences, and potentially towards greater connectedness with nature. Overall, this qualitative study suggests that mindfulness is a useful tool for the benefit of human well-being and nature connection. However, more research is needed to further identify the magnitude and mechanisms of the benefit. / Graduate

Epilepsy is the most common, chronic, serious neurological disease in the world, with an estimated 65 million people affected worldwide. Recent studies on people diagnosed with epilepsy suggest that stress might trigger epileptic seizures. Interventions aimed at lowering stress might be able to reduce the risk for epileptic seizures among epileptics. In an attempt to explore this possibility, I conducted a systematic review addressing the efficacy of behavioral interventions targeted at lowering stress on seizure frequency among an epileptic population. This article also investigated the efficacy of these interventions on lowering self-perceived stress in the same population. Three databases were searched for obtaining 54 references. After a systematic filtering process, a set of 2 studies was retained after the full search procedure. The results suggest stress-reducing behavioral interventions do not have any statistically significant effects on lowering seizure frequency but have a statistically significant effect on lowering self-perceived stress ratings among an epileptic population. The small but promising results from trials and systematic reviews not included in this review warrant further research into the topic. Limitations regarding search procedure included studies and consideration for further research and reading for the presented topics are discussed.

Leitões desmamados em sistema comercial passam por um intenso estresse devido a separação materna, alteração brusca na alimentação e reagrupamento de leitegadas, exacerbado pelas intensas interações agonísticas. Nós investigamos se a presença de um suíno mais velho na baia da creche, logo após o desmame, seria capaz de diminuir as interações agonísticas e a concentração de cortisol, tornando os leitões mais adaptados para lidar com o desafio imposto. Noventa e seis leitões de 21 dias de vida foram desmamados e divididos em 8 baias, das quais, 4 tinham um suíno mais velho. Foram feitas coletas de saliva em 48 animais (24 de cada tratamento), filmagem de comportamentos para posterior análise de interações agonísticas (48 animais, sendo 24 de cada tratamento), contagem total de lesão (96 animais) e um desafio de LPS e coleta de sangue para testar a hipótese. A presença do suíno mais velho diminuiu interações agressivas (p = 0,0419), porcentagem de tempo total gasto em interações agonísticas (p = 0,0289) e quantidade de lesões ( p = 0,0001). Não houve diferença na concentração de cortisol na saliva nem no soro sanguíneo, em resposta ao desafio de LPS entre os tratamentos. O suíno mais velho diminuiu a quantidade de interações agoníticas e a somatória de lesões, podendo ter melhorado a adaptação dos leitões ao momento de desmame / Piglets weaned under commercial systems experience an intense stress due to maternal separation, abrupt changes in the diet and mixing of litters, exacerbated by intensive agonistic interactions. We investigated whether the presence of an older swine in the nursery pen, after weaning, would be able to reduce agonistic interactions and the concentration of cortisol, making the piglets most adapted to deal with the challenge. Ninety-six 21 days old piglets were weaned and housed into 8 pens, of which 4 had an older swine. Saliva samples were taken from 48 animals (24 per treatment), vídeo for analysis of agonistic interactions (48 animals, 24 of each treatment), total count of lesion (96 animals) and a challenge of LPS and collection of blood was carried to test the hypothesis. The presence of the older swine decreased aggressive interactions (p = 0.0419), percentage of total time spent in fights (p = 0.0289) and number of lesions (p = 0.0001). There was no difference in the concentration of cortisol in saliva or in serum in response to LPS challenge. The older swine decreased the amount of agonistics interactions and the amount of lesions, thus it may have improved adaptation of piglet at weaning