Youth stress generation: an examination of the role of anxiety, anxiety symptoms and cognitive distortions.

INTRODUCTION: Stress generation suggests a reciprocal relationship between depression and prospective stressful life events. However, the applicability of stress generation to anxiety disorders has been understudied, particularly among youth. We address this gap by examining stress generation in youth at high-risk of developing anxiety disorders. METHODS: Participants were one-hundred thirty-six at-risk youth (M age = 8.69, 84.6% Caucasian; 55.9% female), each of whom had a parent with an anxiety disorder. We examined the role of an anxiety disorder diagnosis, anxiety symptoms, and cognitive distortions in youth's prospective one and six-year stressful life events (i.e., stress generation). RESULTS: Anxiety symptoms and cognitive distortions were significant predictors of one-year total dependent stress. Anxiety diagnosis and anxiety symptoms were significant predictors of one-year dependent interpersonal stress. Anxiety diagnosis and anxiety symptoms were significant predictors of six-year independent stress. CONCLUSION: Support for the stress generation model was found in high-risk youth, but only over a one-year period. This suggests important effects of anxiety and cognitive distortions on stress generation, though their implications might be time-capped.

Examining the relationship between genetic risk for depression and youth episodic stress exposure.

BACKGROUND: Offspring of depressed mothers have elevated risk of developing depression because they are exposed to greater stress. While generally assumed that youth's increased exposure to stress is due to the environmental effects of living with a depressed parent, youth's genes may influence stress exposure through gene-environment correlations (rGEs). To understand the relationship between risk for depression and stress, we examined the effects of polygenic risk for depression on youth stress exposure. METHODS: We examined the relations of a polygenic risk score (PRS) for depression (DEP-PRS), as well as PRSs for 5 other disorders, with youth stress exposure. Data were from a longitudinal study of a community sample of youth and their parents (n = 377) focusing on data collected at youth's aged 12 and 15 assessments. RESULTS: Elevated youth DEP-PRS was robustly associated with increased dependent stress, particularly interpersonal events. Exploratory analyses indicated that findings were driven by major stress and were not moderated by maternal nor paternal history of depression, and of the 5 additional PRSs tested, only elevated genetic liability for bipolar I was associated with increased dependent stress-particularly non-interpersonal events. LIMITATIONS: Like other PRS studies, we focused on those of European ancestry thus, generalizability of findings is limited. CONCLUSION: Polygenic risk contributes to youth experiencing stressful life events which are dependent on their behavior. This rGE appears to be specific to genetic risk for mood disorders.

Not the exercise type? Personality traits and anxiety sensitivity as predictors of objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time.

Personality traits have been investigated as predictors of sedentary behavior, while both personality traits and anxiety sensitivity have been investigated as predictors of physical activity; however, few studies employed objective measurement of these behaviors. The current study recruited 64 young adults who completed the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 and NEO-Personality Inventory-3, then wore accelerometers for 1 week. Results revealed that agreeableness and anxiety sensitivity were inversely associated with moderate intensity or greater physical activity; however, none of the investigated constructs predicted sedentary time. These results highlight the importance of objective measurement when studying these behaviors and clinical implications for the identification of individuals at risk for physical activity avoidance.

Purtscher retinopathy: an alternative etiology supported by computer fluid dynamic simulations.

PURPOSE: To explore an alternative etiology for Purtscher retinopathy by literature review and fluid dynamic computational simulations of wall shear stress (WSS) profiles. METHODS: Computer simulations were developed, incorporating posterior pole retinal microvascular flow parameters, to demonstrate WSS profiles at 90° and 45° angle artery/arteriolar branching. RESULTS: Computer simulations reveal WSS profiles dependent on artery/arteriolar branching angles. At high flow rates an area of changed WSS and flow swirling and reversal was noted at the proximal fillet of the 90° arteriolar branching. These changes did not appear at the 45° arteriolar branching until the flow rate was increased an additional 30%. CONCLUSIONS: Computer simulation data, as well as review of the history and clinical findings of Purtscher and Purtscher-like retinopathy, present evidence that an additional etiology for Purtscher retinopathy may be a rheological event at a retinal posterior pole foci of vascular endothelial dysregulation, followed by downstream endothelin-induced vasculopathy.