Whole-food plant-based diet reduces daytime sleepiness in patients with OSA.

Consumption of a diet high in saturated fat has been associated with daytime sleepiness. A whole-food plant-based (WFPB) dietary pattern, which is low in saturated fat, has been shown to be beneficial in a variety of health conditions. We assessed the effect of a short-term (21 days) WFPB diet intervention on daytime sleepiness in 14 patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). We found a mean decrease of 3.8 points (SD = 3.3, p = 0.003) on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) after switching from a standard Western diet to a WFPB diet. Our results suggest that a WFPB diet could be a viable dietary intervention to reduce symptom of daytime sleepiness.

Antenatal anxiety disorder as a predictor of postnatal depression: a longitudinal study.

Previous research has implicated high levels of antenatal anxiety as a predictor of postnatal depression, but there is a paucity of evidence on the relationship between the various forms of anxiety and postnatal depression. A longitudinal study of 246 mothers (56 with antenatal generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), 68 with antenatal generalised social phobia, 28 with both disorders in the antenatal period, and 94 with no antenatal GAD or social phobia) allowed us to explore whether antenatal social phobia and GAD predict high Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) scores (probable depression >12) at 10-14 days, 10-12 weeks, 10 months, 14 months, and 24 months postnatally. We found that, after accounting for the presence of other antenatal anxiety disorders, antenatal depression, maternal age at child's birth, socio-economic status and ethnicity in the models, antenatal GAD independently predicted depression at all time points after delivery. A less robust relationship was found for antenatal social phobia, which predicted postnatal depression at only 10 months after birth. One possibility consistent with our findings is that there may be differences in the timing of postnatal depression with different forms of antenatal anxiety disorders.

Intergenerational transmission of social anxiety: the role of social referencing processes in infancy.

Responses to an unfamiliar adult were examined in infants of mothers with social phobia (N= 79) and infants of nonanxious comparison mothers (N= 77) at 10 and 14 months in a social referencing paradigm. On each occasion, a female stranger first interacted with the mother and then approached and interacted with the infant. Over time, infants of mothers with social phobia showed increasing avoidance of the stranger, particularly when they were behaviorally inhibited. In boys, maternal social phobia was associated with increasing fearful responses. Infant avoidance was predicted by expressed maternal anxiety and low levels of encouragement to interact with the stranger. The findings are discussed in relation to theories concerning the intergenerational transmission of social anxiety.