New research shows that men under stress may be more likely to take risks, correlating to such real-life behavior as gambling, smoking, unsafe sex and illegal drug use. In contrast, stressed women moderate their behavior and may be less likely to make risky choices, the study found. Click here to read the article.

PLoS One, July 1 2009

It is well documented that police officers have a higher risk of developing heart disease: The question is why.

In the most recent results coming out of one of the few long-term studies being conducted within this tightly knit society, University at Buffalo researchers have determined that underlying the higher incidence of subclinical atherosclerosis — arterial thickening that precedes a heart attack or stroke — may be the stress of police work.  Click here to read the article

The following is an extract from an artcile written by Dr Tal Ben- Shahar, a lecturer in positive psychology at Harvard.  His take home message - learn to chill.  Learning to activate the calming response (learning to chill) is the central theme of our ACCEPTional workshops. Once you have mastered the art of chilling, everything else is just so much easier.

“Research shows that encouraging 10- to 15- minute breaks every hour or so pays dividends in ways bosses might never have otherwise imagined, he says. Such breaks are shown to increase productivity, creativity, loyalty and retention and have obvious benefits for bottom lines.

Mini recovery times are also not just smoke breaks — though they can be. Rather they should be “regular workouts”, he says, during which staff can do deep breathing and relaxation exercises, go to the gym, take a walk or simply just “be still”.

Click here to read Tal’s full article

Researchers  investigated the feasibility of repeatng a mantra (repeating a personally significnt word) throughout the day for managing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans. 

They found large effect sizes were found for reducing PTSD symptom severity, psychological distress  and increasing quality of life. The participants in the study also reported moderate to high satisfaction with the mantra technique.

J Holist Nurs. 2008 Jun;26(2):109-16.

Editors note: Our Resilience Builder software includes a training feature that allows you to identify a personalised  mantra that is most effective in rediding your levels of stress.

 A new study  suggests that respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) biofeedback  software, like Resilience Builder, might be an effective treatment for PTSD.

Recent studies have found a significant association between PTSD and low heart rate variability (HRV), a biomarker of autonomic dysregulation. Research indicates that respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) biofeedback increases HRV while reducing related pathological symptoms. This study compared RSA biofeedback to progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) for 38 persons with PTSD symptoms in a residential treatment facility for a substance use disorder.

Both groups were assessed at pre-intervention and 4-week post-intervention. The researchers found significantly greater reductions in depressive symptoms and increases in HRV indices for the RSA group. Both groups significantly reduced PTSD and insomnia symptoms and a statistical trend was observed for reduced substance craving for the RSA group.

The researchers conlcuded that ”HRV were significantly associated with PTSD symptom reduction. Overall, these results provide preliminary support for the efficacy of RSA biofeedback in improving physiological and psychological health for individuals with PTSD.”

Applied Psychophysiology Biofeedback , 2009, Pages 1-9

An examination of emotions reported on 12 million personal blogs along with the results of three experiments reveal that the meaning of happiness is not fixed; instead, it shifts as people age. Whereas younger people are more likely to associate happiness with excitement, older people are more likely to associate happiness with feeling peaceful. This change is driven by increased feelings of connectedness (to others and to the present moment) as one ages.

Stanford University Graduate School of Business Research Paper No. 2026

Editors comments:
The irony is that most measures of happiness don’t focus on the subtle positive emotions such as calm, contentment and peacefulness. It’s also interesting to note that the authors talk about connectedness in the context of others and the present moment - connectedness with the present moment is called mindfulness.

Researchers form the University of California have conducted a meta-analyis on positive psychology (PP) interventions and have found that they enhance well-being and ameliorate depressive symptoms. Click here to read the article.

The researchers concluded that “clinicians should be encouraged to incorporate positive psychology techniques into their clinical work, particularly for treating clients who are depressed, relatively older, or highly motivated to improve. Our findings also suggest that clinicians would do well to deliver positive psychology interventions as individual (versus group) therapy and for relatively longer periods of time.”

If you have a closer look at the research there are some interesting observations:
1. PP doesn’t seem to be as effective for children and adolescents
2. PP is most effective when undertaken one-on-one with a coach or therapist. The effect is much smaller for group and self administered intreventions.
3. Short term PP interventions are far less effective
4. The effect of the PP intervention when compared to controls and placebos is comparatively small

A lukewarm or deflating reaction to a partner’s positive news tells more about the health of the relationship, and is even more predictive of its breakup, than whether a partner is supportive after bad news, says Shelly Gable, a psychologist at the University of California-Santa Barbara. Click here to read the article.

The new research, conducted by scientists at the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, shows that loneliness can add 30 points to a blood pressure reading for adults over the age of 50. Click here to read the article.

After adjusting for age, sex, education and race, a higher purpose of life was associated with a substantially reduced risk of mortality. Thus, a person with high purpose in life was about half as likely to die over the follow-up period compared to a person with low purpose. The association of purpose in life with mortality did not differ among men and women or whites and blacks, and the finding persisted even after controlling for depressive symptoms, disability, neuroticism, the number of medical conditions and income..  Click here to read the article.

Psychosomatic Medicine, June 2009, available online at www.psychosomaticmedicine.org.