Healthcare Prof:

How children are affected by out-of-home care depends not only on the qualities of their teacher and the classroom, but also on the nature of the children’s relationship with their caregivers. That’s the finding of a brand new study on the level of the stress hormone cortisol in children in full-day child care.

Cortisol, the primary stress hormone in humans, tends to be at its highest levels inside the early morning and gradually declines over the course of the day. But recent research has located that many preschoolers in full-day child care have increases in cortisol from morning to afternoon.

This study discovered that children in classrooms with closer to 10 children were far more likely to show cortisol decreases from morning to afternoon, while children in classrooms with closer to 20 children tended to show greater increases in cortisol across the day. Children with a lot more clingy relationships with their teachers showed greater rises in cortisol from morning to afternoon, and children with much more conflicted relationships with their teachers showed greater cortisol boosts during a one-on-one session with their teachers. Conflicted relationships were said to occur when teachers tried to control resistant children, when children perceived their teachers as unfriendly, or when teachers or children reported that the teachers found the interaction frustrating.

This unusual increase of cortisol levels is of potential concern because long-term or frequent elevations in cortisol can have negative wellness consequences. Research with animals and human children suggests that secure relationships with parents protect children from rises in cortisol in stressful situations.

This study, by researchers at Washington State University, Auburn University, the Washington State Department of Early Learning, and the Pennsylvania State University, appears in the November/December 2008 problem of Child Development.

The study looked at 191 preschoolers attending 12 child care centers in a small southeastern U.S. community to determine if the quality of teacher-child relationships could predict increases in cortisol in the children. Teachers described their relationships with the children in their care on a questionnaire and children talked about their relationships with their teachers in interviews. Researchers also collected saliva samples from the children in classrooms to determine changes in their cortisol levels from morning to afternoon. They also collected saliva outside of class before and after a series of mildly difficult tasks designed to look like challenges the children might experience in the classroom and before and after a non-challenging interaction using the teacher.

“This study sheds additional light on an as yet incompletely understood phenomenon? among many young children attending full-day child care,” according to Jared A. Lisonbee, assistant professor of human development at Washington State University and lead author of the study. “Additionally, the study begins to situate child care-cortisol study inside the context of a broader literature on the role of relationships in shaping how children function and how they react to stress.”

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The study was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation.

Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 79, Issue 6, Children’s Cortisol and the Quality of Teacher-Child Relationships in Child Care by Jared A. Lisonbee, JA (Washington State University), Mize, J (Auburn University), Payne, AL (Washington State Department of Early Learning), and Granger, DA (Pennsylvania State University). Copyright 2008 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

Source: Andrea Browning
Society for Investigation in Child Development

Dr. Hillel W. Cohen, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Population Wellness criticized the CDC guidelines for pandemic flu announced at a news conference these days by CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. In accordance with Dr. Cohen, the CDC guidelines “repeats the errors that had been made in preparation for Hurricane Katrina.”

In certain, the guidelines acknowledge but don’t supply any implies to account for the fantastic social inequalities that exist according to race and class,” he stated.

Inside the event of a significant pandemic (Category four or 5 according to the new, hurricane-based, classification scheme) workers who’re sick with flu symptoms should remain house.

“Many workers have small or no paid sick time and those that live paycheck to paycheck won’t be able to do this. The government proposal that employers voluntarily offer pay to workers who remain home just isn’t serious.”

“Similarly, the thought that workers telecommute or stay away from public transportation shows that the planners are not sensitive to the reality that lower paid workers have jobs that make this impossible and that several don’t have access to alternate transportation.”

Dr. Cohen pointed out that the New Orleans method to rely on voluntary evacuation directly led towards the disaster of men and women without having the means being stranded.

“It is ironic,” he said, “that the government’s major stated public wellness objective may be the elimination of wellness disparities by 2010 and but these guidelines entirely ignore the social disparities.”

Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University
www.aecom.yu.edu/home

Healthcare Prof:

5 (1 votes)

Children who become very upset when their parents fight are more likely to develop psychological issues. But little is known about what happens beyond these behavioral reactions in terms of children’s biological responses. A brand new study has located that children who are very distressed when their parents fight also have higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.

The study, by researchers at the University of Rochester, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Notre Dame, appears in the November/December 2008 issue of the journal Child Development.

The researchers studied 208 primarily White 6-year-olds and their mothers to determine whether children who showed specific behavior patterns of reacting to conflict also had changes in cortisol levels during simulated telephone arguments between their parents. They measured children’s distress, hostility, and level of involvement inside the arguments, and received reports from the mothers about how their children responded when parents fought at home. Cortisol levels were measured by taking saliva samples before and after the conflicts inside the lab.

Children who were very distressed by the conflicts inside the lab had greater levels of cortisol in response to their parents fighting. Children’s levels of hostility and their involvement during the arguments weren’t always associated to their levels of cortisol, the study identified. But children who were very distressed and very involved in response to parental fighting had especially high levels of cortisol.

“Our outcomes indicate that children who are distressed by conflict between their parents show greater biological sensitivity to conflict inside the form of greater levels of the stress hormone, cortisol,” according to Patrick T. Davies, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, who led the study. “Because greater levels of cortisol have been linked to a wide range of mental and physical wellness difficulties, high levels of cortisol may help explain why children who experience high levels of distress when their parents argue are a lot more likely to experience later well being troubles.”

The study has implications for policy and practice: The common practice of judging how nicely intervention programs are doing based solely on improvements in how children function psychologically may need to be changed to include physiological measures like cortisol levels, the authors suggest.

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The study was funded in part by the National Institute of Mental Well being.

Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 79, Concern 6, Adrenocortical Underpinnings of Children’s Psychological Reactivity to Interparental Conflict by Davies, PT, Sturge-Apple, ML (University of Rochester), Cicchetti, D (University of Minnesota), and Cummings, EM (University of Notre Dame). Copyright 2008 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

Source: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development

The United Nations World Food Programme has condemned a kidnapping and armed attack on a WFP-contracted convoy in Eastern Chad early on Sunday (28 January).

According to the Libyan company which leased the trucks to WFP, unknown gunmen attacked the convoy of 48 empty vehicles as it was returning from Eastern Chad to Khufra, South Libya, over the weekend. The convoy had delivered food help to some 220,000 men and women living in refugee camps in Eastern Chad.

The driver was safely released on Thursday, together with his truck, after his four day ordeal which began when the gunmen stole personal belongings including satellite phones, watches, clothes as well as other valuables from all the drivers. The booty was apparently transferred onto one of the trucks and taken away, along with its driver.

This is the third armed attack on WFP aid convoys in Eastern Chad within the past two months.

The convoy was stopped 70 kilometres north of Bahai, Northeast Chad, in an location about 600 kms from the Libyan border and a few kilometres following the point where the Chadian army escort left the convoy, as the remaining leg of the journey is deep in the desert, where a criminal incident is less likely to occur.

The company which provides trucks for WFP to send food aid to hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, to Eastern Chad informed WFP that it was freezing the movement of shipments on this route until all 48 trucks were returned. Another 33-truck convoy carrying 850 tons of wheat for the refugees has been in Owainat, 400 kms south of Khufra, the company said, waiting to cross into Chad until the attacked convoy was returned.

“We do not know the identity with the attackers but this is making our work extremely difficult, endangering the life of courageous drivers and delaying food shipments for tens of thousands of extremely vulnerable folks,” said Amir Ismail, in charge of WFP logistics in Libya.

“We call on all factions in Eastern Chad, and urge the Chadian government to do its best to guarantee the safety of aid convoys and drivers,” stated Naila Sabra, Regional Director for WFP in the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Using Libyan ports and roads as an entry point to Chad – and even to Darfur at one stage – has been a key success story for WFP.

“Many men and women in Darfur and Chad would have been unable to receive food help that we now move through Libya had it not been for this corridor,” said Sabra.

The journey overland exceeds 2,800 kms and takes several weeks to complete. Early in January one driver with a WFP-contracted truck was shot but his life was saved following he was medically evacuated by plane.

In 2006, WFP shipped about 37,000 tons of food aid through Libya to Chad and Darfur.

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WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency: every year, we give food to an average of 90 million poor men and women to meet their nutritional needs, including 58 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world’s poorest countries.

WFP Global School Feeding Campaign – For just 19 US cents a day, you can aid WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal at school – a gift of hope for a brighter future.

For further information please go to:
World Food Program WFP – We Feed People

1 (1 votes)

Healthcare Prof:

4 (1 votes)

A new study provides the best evidence to date that a psychological intervention program designed for breast cancer patients not only improves their wellness – it actually increases their chance of survival.

Researchers at Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center located that patients participating in an intervention program reduced their risk of dying of breast cancer by 56 percent after an average of 11 years.

Participants in the program, which taught strategies to reduce stress, improve mood and alter health behaviors, also reduced the risk of breast cancer recurrence by 45 percent.

“The results suggest that we can help breast cancer patients make positive steps that may help them live longer and make recurrence less likely,” said Barbara Andersen, lead author of the study and a member of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of psychology.

“We already knew a psychological intervention program could help breast cancer patients to handle their stress, function more effectively, and improve their well being. Now we know it does even far more.”

The study will be published in the Dec. 15 problem of the journal Cancer, and is currently available to subscribers online.

The study is part of the long-running Stress and Immunity Breast Cancer Project at Ohio State. Participants included 227 patients who had been surgically treated for Stage II or Stage III breast cancer.

Half of the patients had been enrolled inside the intervention program, while the other half had been simply assessed on a regular basis. All received their regular medical treatments as properly.

Those in the intervention group met weekly in groups of 8 to 12 with a clinical psychologist. During these weekly sessions, which continued for four months, participants learned progressive muscle relaxation for stress reduction, problem solving for common difficulties (such as fatigue), how to find support from family and friends, exercise and diet tips, and how to deal with treatment side effects and keep up with medical treatment and follow-up.

After four months of weekly sessions, participants met monthly for eight months.

Researchers have followed up regularly with all people who took part within the study. By October 2007, patients had been followed from 7 to 13 years.

In addition to improving survival and reducing recurrence, the intervention program had other positive effects, said Andersen.

Among patients who died of breast cancer, those who participated within the intervention program lived longer – an average of 6.1 years for program participants versus 4.8 years for people who were simply assessed.

Intervention participants had been also less likely to die from causes other than breast cancer, such as heart disease or other cancers. For people who died of any cause, participants within the intervention lived an average of 6 years compared to 5 years for those who didn’t.

“Many of the strategies patients learned within the intervention program, such as stress reduction, may have protected them from heart disease and other causes of death,” Andersen said.

Researchers did a follow-up analysis in which they excluded folks who had been put in the intervention group, but who attended fewer that 20 percent of the sessions (16 of the 114 participants fit this requirement). When the infrequent attendees had been excluded, the remainder had a 68-percent reduced risk of breast cancer death, compared to the 56-percent risk reduction for the whole participant group.

Andersen said this study was unique in several ways. Inside the 1980s and 90s, two separate studies located higher survival rates for cancer patients who participated in intervention programs; one study involved breast cancer patients whose disease had already recurred, and the other study included newly diagnosed melanoma patients. But these studies were not designed to look at how the interventions affected survival rates. When other researchers tried to replicate these outcomes, they identified no effect for intervention programs.

This new study, though, was designed to look specifically at recurrence and survival rates, Andersen said. In addition, the intervention program is distinct and so are the participants in the study.

Participants in the Ohio State study had Stage II and III breast cancer, which means their chance of survival had been better than those with Stage IV cancer (which means the cancer has spread to other parts of the body), but not as good as those diagnosed with Stage I.

“We wanted those patients within the middle, where we felt we had the most chance of influencing their future course using the disease,” she said.

How did the intervention program help cancer patients?

“We believe the significant psychological improvements and behavior changes may have been vital,” according to Andersen.

For example, the researchers discovered that patients in the intervention group who had the greatest reductions in distress and physical symptoms were people who practiced progressive muscle relaxation most frequently. They also understood and remembered that continued stress could hurt their well being and now knew several ways to reduce stress.

“We discovered a strong relationship between patients’ use of the intervention strategies we taught them and better health,” she said.

Previous investigation with the same females in this study showed that ladies in the intervention showed signs of improved immune function compared to those who didn’t participate. That is most likely related to the lower levels of distress they felt, Andersen said.

Overall, the results show a promising new way to help treat cancer patients, she said.

“If psychological interventions to reduce stress are delivered early, they can improve mental health, health, and possibly even their odds of survival.”

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Co-authors on the study had been William Farrar, professor of surgery; William Carson III, professor of surgery and associate director for clinical analysis at the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center; Hae-Chung Yang, research associate in psychology; Deanna Golden-Kreutz, clinical research manager in medicine; Lisa Thornton, post-doctoral fellow in psychology; Charles Emery, professor of psychology; Donn Young, a biostatistician and investigation scientist inside the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Wellness and the National Cancer Institute, with additional help from American Cancer Society; Longaberger Company-American Cancer Society Grant for Breast Cancer Analysis; U.S. Army Medical Study Institute; the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center; and the Walther Cancer Institute.

Written by Jeff Grabmeier

Source: Barbara Andersen
Ohio State University

Article Opinions:1 posts
Deadly storms blew across Central Florida early Friday morning, damaging houses, killing residents and causing power outages. The American Red Cross is rapidly responding, moving personnel and resources that were in place for Sunday’s Super Bowl at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Florida. In addition, the Red Cross Safe and Well website is operating to assist those who cannot reach loved ones.

Red Cross staff, volunteers, emergency response vehicles (ERVs) and mobile feeding units are mobilizing from Red Cross Chapters across Florida to help their neighbors in need. Red Cross workers have set up emergency shelters within the affected Florida counties, providing food, water along with other services.

Due to widespread power and telecommunication outages, service may not be restored for several days. During this critical time, your family and friends may not be able to reach you. If you have been affected by the recent storms in Central Florida, please visit http://www.RedCross.org and click on Safe and Well to inform your loved ones of your well-being. This secure website supplies a way for you to identify yourself as “safe and well.” From a list of standard messages, you can select those you want to communicate to your family members — who may be worried about your safety. If you hear from a loved one inside the affected area, you can input their information so other family members would be updated on their well-being as well.

As with any other Red Cross service or product, Safe and Well safeguards the privacy of disaster victims and protects their information according to privacy law standards. Messages — but not locations — will be viewable by friends and family. The Red Cross recommends that men and women affected should determine how best to communicate their contact information and whereabouts to family members. During the initial hours of this disaster it is important to stay connected with loved ones. Take action now by visiting http://www.RedCross.org.

All American Red Cross disaster help is free, produced possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can aid the victims of thousands of disasters across the country every single year, disasters like the Florida tornadoes, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling as well as other help to victims of disaster. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster please do so at the time of your donation.

American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org

On the other hand, the fact is in the last teaching weeks, there are lots of academic writing tasks are waiting for you, in such a short time, even you have studied hard before, you still find it is painful to complete so many academic writing, and the qualities of the term papers, research papers you submitted at last are obviously not so good as you expected. In fact, the high qualities of term papers requires you spend a lot of time on it. It is impossible for you to attain of course in your academic days. There is no doubt that there are deep reasons behind the whole academic system. While it is too late for you to complain or blame the system itself, the urgent task for you is to complete the current term papers with high qualities before their deadlines to get the satisfactory results, then you can save your time to start another tasks more important.

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Healthcare Prof:

NHS and MOD collaborate to provide mental well being care closer to home. A Somerset mental health Trust is one of only seven organisations selected by the Ministry of Defence to support members of the armed services affected by mental ill well being.

In an announcement made Kevan Jones MP, the Under Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Veterans, named Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust as one of the organisations which is to form a partnership of psychiatric support services to armed service personnel.

The new scheme will ensure inpatient treatment can be offered closer to the patient’s home or parent unit and will use facilities at each of the NHS Trusts to deliver improved coverage across the country.

Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and the other partner organisations were selected because they are amongst the highest performing organisations within the NHS. National inspectors, the Healthcare Commission, have rated Somerset Partnership Trust’s services their highest ‘Excellent’ rating for the last three years. The network of mental health Trusts is lead by South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Commenting upon the Ministry of Defence’s decision to include the services of Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust within the new network, Chief Executive, Edward Colgan, said: “We are very pleased and proud to be able to offer our expertise and support to members of the armed services who are experiencing mental ill well being by providing care closer towards the homes and communities in which they and their families live”.

Kevan Jones, Under Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Veterans, said:

“I want to make sure that when our people require inpatient care, they get the best available, close to their homes or parent unit – and that is exactly what this achieves. It matches the community-based approach we follow for our outpatients who are seen at our regional military mental health centres across the UK. It’s good to be building on this partnership with today’s new contract. These are both good examples of how nicely the military and NHS are becoming at working together.”

South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare is leading a partnership of NHS trusts who have been awarded the contract to present in-patient mental healthcare to serving personnel across the country by the Ministry of Defence.

The other six NHS trusts involved within the partnership are:

Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
NHS Grampian, Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust

Source
Paul Courtney
NHS Communications Manager
(On behalf of Somerset partnership NHS Foundation Trust)
http://www.sompar.nhs.uk

4 (1 votes)

As residents of Central Florida awoke this morning to updated reports of increased devastation in their community, some have begun to start the recovery process. If you have remained home and started to pick up the pieces or are returning home and surveying the damage, the Red Cross urges all residents to use extreme caution and stay safe. Within the aftermath of a tornado:

— Listen to local and emergency officials – Use a portable radio or television to listen towards the local news for updates, and follow instructions from emergency officials.

— Put on protective clothing – Put on long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, sturdy shoes and work gloves to protect yourself from broken items and debris.

— Check for injuries – Make sure you and your loved ones are okay and seek medical attention if needed.

— Watch for hazards in your neighborhood – Look out for fallen electrical wires, broken gas lines and debris from fallen power lines. Report downed lines quickly so that utilities can be turned off at the source. Avoid hazardous debris such as broken glass or spilled chemicals and do not go into damaged buildings.

— Inspect your home – Inspect your home for damage and get everyone out if it is unsafe. Contact local officials for additional information.

— Children and pets – If you have children and/or pets, try to keep them calm and comfort them. Even a normally docile animal when scared may react by biting or scratching, so handle service animals and pets with care.

— Use stored clean water – Contaminated water may have a bad odor or taste. Treat all water of uncertain purity just before using it for drinking, food preparation or hygiene. For more information on treating water, please visit http://www.redcross.org

— Check on neighbors – Older adults and people with disabilities may require additional assistance during an emergency. Caregivers or neighbors with large households, especially those with small children or infants, may appreciate an extra hand as well.

— Eliminate unnecessary travel – Unnecessary travel may hamper efforts by emergency and construction crews. In addition, traffic signals stop working during an outage, creating congestion and fallen trees, branches or other debris that may make roads inaccessible.

One of the most common problems caused by tornadoes is loss of electricity. If you experience a blackout, and it is otherwise safe for you to remain in your home, the following tips can help you cope until power is restored:

— Turn off electronic devices – Turn off electrical appliances or equipment that were powered on when the electricity went out. Leave one light turned on to easily determine when power has been restored.

— Use battery-powered lights – Due towards the extreme risk of fire, avoid candles during a power outage and opt instead for flashlights or other battery-powered lights.

— Keep refrigerator doors closed – Avoid opening the refrigerator and freezer to keep the contents cold. As soon as power is restored, check temperatures. Perishable foods in the refrigerator should not be above 40 degrees for much more than two hours. If the food inside the freezer has ice crystals and is not above 40 degrees, you can refreeze. When in doubt, throw it out.

— Follow proper directions for generator use – Do not run a generator inside a confined space, such as a home or garage, due to the extreme dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning. If you use a generator, connect the equipment you want to power directly to the outlets on the generator. Do not connect a generator to a home’s electrical system unless you have an approved power transfer switch installed.

For more information regarding how individuals and families can prepare for disasters, visit http://www.redcross.org or contact your local Red Cross chapter.

All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made achievable by voluntary donations of time and money from the American individuals. You can support the victims of thousands of disasters across the country every year, disasters like the Florida tornadoes, by making a financial gift towards the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other help to victims ofdisaster. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster please do so at the time of your donation. Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or towards the American Red Cross, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013. Internet users can make a secure online contribution by visiting http://www.redcross.org.

American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org

Healthcare Prof:

A little bit of stress goes a long way and can have far-reaching effects.

Neuroscientists from the University of Washington have found that a single exposure to uncontrollable stress impairs decision making in rats for several days, making them unable to reliably seek out the larger of two rewards.

The investigation was presented here Tuesday (Nov. 18) at a press conference on “Our Stressed Out Brains” during the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting by Lauren Jones, a UW psychology doctoral student.

Jones, working with Jeansok Kim, a UW associate professor of psychology, located that stressed rats took significantly longer to respond to a change in rewards given to them in a maze and their performances never matched those of other rats not exposed to stress.

Another group of rats was given a small dose of the drug muscimol, which temporarily inactivated the amygdala in their brains, prior to being subjected to the same stress. These rats were unaffected by the stress and performed as properly as the animals that had been not stressed. The amygdala is located in the forebrain and processes info about such things as fear (the so-called fight-or-flight response), stress and rewards.

“Stress can be long lasting, depending on what it is. The rats that received the drug were tested on the maze the day after they were exposed to stress and it was as if the experience had never happened to them. Inactivation of the amygdala took the stress away,” said Jones.

“Whatever stress these rats experienced was not getting processed,” said Kim. “They seemed to be immune towards the stressful experience.”

Stress is known to contribute to a number of psychopathologies in humans including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and drug-use relapse.

Neuroscientists also know that stress affects cognition, and believe study exploring how it relates to learning, memory and decision making will help them understand potential issues stressed people experience in their daily lives.

The UW researchers worked with three groups of rats – a control group, a stress group and a stress plus amygdala inactivation group. All of the rats had been acclimated to an automated figure-eight shaped maze that consisted of a center track leading to two loops that ran to the left and right and back to the center. The animals had been trained for several days until they were able to complete 40 laps or trials in less than 30 minutes. For each trial, a rat would start in the center, then was allowed to freely run to either the right or the left loop, consume a water reward and return towards the center for the next trial. Both loops always had an 80 percent chance of containing 0.04 milliliters of water, and the animals made a comparable number of visits to each loop. The animals had been kept on a daily water restriction schedule to motivate them to run the maze.

After this, rats within the stress group and those that had been given the drug had been restrained and subjected to an unpredictable series of tail shocks for one hour. The following day, all of the rats had been returned to the maze for a new series of trials. Once again the animals could run either loop of the maze, but this time the reward amount was increased on one side to 0.12 milliliters.

Within three days the control group and stress plus amygdala inactivation group were reliably able to navigate the maze and collect the larger reward on 35 out of 40 trials. The stress group, meanwhile, was only successful on about 23 of 40 trials, and after several more days their performance only increased to about 26 out of 40 trials.

“The stressed animals took longer to learn and weren’t adjusting their behavior within the maze,” said Jones. “From this research we can see the effects of stress on rats and how one episode of stress impairs their decision making for several days.

“We know humans have to make numerous higher-levels decisions, some of which are complex and require deliberations. Rats are guided by survival, and seeking out the larger of two rewards for the same effort should be fundamentally easy. The fact that stress can have such an effect on a simple but vital task is amazing.”

Kim added: “Decision making, both large and small, is part of our lives. People are prone to make mistakes under stress. Look at what has been going on with the stock market. People are under huge amounts of stress and we have to question some of the decisions that are getting made.”

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Co-author of the study is Taejib Yoon, a post-doctoral researcher at the UW. Funding for the study came from the National Institute of Mental Wellness and the university’s Royalty Study Fund.

Source: Joel Schwarz
University of Washington