Tag: Thomas Ritz

Prevention: Anxiety Is Draining Your Brain, But It Doesn’t Have To

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date June 22, 2012

Health journalist Markham Heid wrote about the groundbreaking panic and anxiety research of SMU psychologists Dr. Alicia Meuret and Dr. Thomas Ritz in the June 2012 issue of Prevention magazine.

The article “Anxiety Is Draining Your Brain, But It Doesn’t Have To” cites the startling findings of Meuret’s anxiety research, which has found that the standard advice to “take a deep breath” actually makes such situations worse.

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EXCERPT:

By Markham Heid
Prevention

How’s this for unfair: Women are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety disorders than men are, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. And to top it off, new research finds that those frequent bouts of worrying may be making it hard for your brain to complete even the simplest of tasks.

It’s no secret that feeling anxious isn’t exactly enjoyable, but Michigan State University researchers wanted to find out exactly what goes on inside an anxious brain. They asked 149 men and women who suffer from anxiety to complete a series of puzzles, while tracking the electrical activity in their brains.

The results: Although men and women performed equally well on the simple puzzles, women’s brains were much more active. Later, when the puzzles became more difficult, the women performed worse than their male counterparts.

Why? The researchers speculate that the energy used up on simple tasks robbed the anxious women of the brainpower needed to complete more difficult tasks. In other words, although your brain is technically an organ, it mimics a muscle in that it can be worn down by too much work. And, like carrying around an extra 10-pound weight, anxiety makes everything your brain does more difficult.

But not to worry; you can learn to get a handle on your anxiety with a few easy tips:

Control your breathing. Although you’ve probably been told to breathe deeply when trying to calm down, the opposite is actually true, says Alicia Meuret, PhD, a psychologist and anxiety specialist at Southern Methodist University. “Deep breaths worsen hyperventilation and anxiety-associated symptoms such as shortness of breath and a racing heart,” she says. So how should you breathe? Slowly and shallowly, Dr. Meuret recommends. Try to take in as little air as possible, keeping in the oxygen for a second or two before exhaling, she advises. This will keep your body’s supply of circulating carbon dioxide at its proper level, which will calm you down, she says. […]

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Tags Alicia E. Meuret, Dedman College, SMU Department of Psychology, Thomas Ritz

Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News

Baylor Innovations: Don’t Panic, New Research Shows That Panic Attacks Are Not As Spontaneous As Once Thought

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date May 7, 2012

Baylor Innovations, the quarterly magazine of Baylor Health Care System, featured the groundbreaking panic attack research of SMU psychologists Dr. Alicia E. Meuret, Dr. David Rosenfield and Dr. Thomas Ritz.

The Spring 2012 article by health and science writer Mark Cantrell, titled “Don’t Panic: New Research Shows That Panic Attacks Are Not As Spontaneous As Once Thought” details the startling findings of Meuret’s newest published study showing significant physiological instability in advance of so-called out-of-the-blue panic attacks.

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EXCERPT:

By Mark Cantrell
Baylor Innovations
YOUR HANDS ARE SHAKING. YOUR KNEES FEEL WEAK. You’re sweating, your heart is pounding like a jackhammer and you feel you can’t catch your breath. You’re having a panic attack, and it seems to have struck without warning.

But did it? A new study conducted at Southern Methodist University in Dallas suggests that panic attacks are actually telegraphed ahead of time by certain physiological changes.

The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) defines a panic attack as a discrete period of intense fear and discomfort in which symptoms such as a racing heart, shortness of breath or dizziness develop suddenly and reach a peak in about 10 minutes.

Those experiencing an attack may believe they’re having a heart attack or stroke. But one of the most distressing things about panic attacks is that they often seem to have no actual cause.

Out of Nowhere?
“Unexpected attacks – as compared to those triggered by certain situations such as flying, being in a closed space or speaking in public – are thought to occur spontaneously, in absence of internal signals or situational triggers,” explains Alicia Meuret, Ph.D., an associate professor at Southern Methodist University and chief investigator of the study.

“The literature on how the body reacts when patients who are prone to them have an unexpected attack is very limited, due to the unexpectedness of the phenomenon. To date we do not know what triggers these attacks, but it is likely that the causes are multifactorial.”

For the study, Dr. Meuret enlisted 43 people with a history of panic attacks to wear portable monitors that captured changes in respiration, heart rate and other bodily functions.

The device was worn in a waist pack, with sensors attached at various points. Elastic bands around the chest and abdomen measured breathing rate, depth and variability.

Electrodes kept track of patients’ cardiac and sweat gland activity, while accelerometers measured body movement. Participants were instructed to press a “panic button” at the moment they felt the onset of an attack, and to write down the symptoms they were feeling at the time.

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For more SMU research see www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information, www.smu.edu.

Tags Alicia E. Meuret, David Rosenfield, Dedman College, SMU Department of Psychology, Thomas Ritz

Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News

HHS Healthbeat: Predicting Panic Attacks

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date September 22, 2011

Nicholas Garlow with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services created a podcast about the groundbreaking panic attack research of SMU psychologists Dr. Alicia Meuret, Dr. David Rosenfield and Dr. Thomas Ritz.

The Sept. 22 podcast “Predicting Panic Attacks” details the startling findings of Meuret’s newest published study showing significant physiological instability in advance of so-called out-of-the-blue panic attacks.

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Listen to the podcast.

EXCERPT:

By Nicholas Garlow
HHS Healthbeat
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I???m Nicholas Garlow with HHS HealthBeat.

Your body may give you hints that you’re going to have a panic attack, a short period of intense fear and discomfort. Forty-three panic attack sufferers carried portable recorders that measured respiration, heart rate and other bodily functions, over 2,000 hours.

Alice Meuret is at Southern Methodist University.

“Most of the physiological changes took place long before the patients reported that what they felt was a panic attack.” (10 seconds)

To combat attacks, she suggests:

“Changing respiration when noticing symptoms could be effective in avoiding a full blown panic attack. One should try to breathe as little air as possible, to reverse hyperventilation.’ (14 seconds)

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Listen to the podcast.

Tags Alicia E. Meuret, David Rosenfield, Dedman College, SMU Department of Psychology, Thomas Ritz

Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News

The Wall Street Journal: Seeing Signs of a Panic Attack Before One Happens

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date September 21, 2011

Science journalist Ann Lukits wrote about the groundbreaking panic attack research of SMU psychologists Dr. Alicia Meuret, Dr. David Rosenfield and Dr. Thomas Ritz in the The Wall Street Journal‘s Research Report.

The Sept. 20 article “Seeing Signs of a Panic Attack Before One Happens” details the startling findings of Meuret’s newest published study showing significant physiological instability in advance of so-called out-of-the-blue panic attacks.

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EXCERPT:

By Ann Lukits
The Wall Street Journal
Panic attacks that appeared to strike out of the blue were preceded for almost an hour by significant physiological changes that went undetected by research subjects in a study published in Biological Psychiatry. Panic attacks are intense episodes of terror lasting about 10 minutes that can be unexpected or induced by specific triggers. The disorder, which affects about six million American adults, is twice as common in women as men, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

Researchers in Texas used portable monitors to record minute-by-minute physiological changes in 43 patients age 23 to 62 with moderate-to-severe panic disorder. Eight indicators, including heart rate, respiration, and skin conductance, an indication of a psychological or physiological reaction to stimuli, were measured during two 24-hour sessions. Patients pressed an event marker when a panic attack occurred and noted the start time. Thirteen attacks averaging eight minutes in length were reported.

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Tags Alicia E. Meuret, David Rosenfield, Dedman College, SMU Department of Psychology, Thomas Ritz

Culture, Society & Family Economics & Statistics Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News

The Atlantic: The Upside of a Panic Attack: The Worst Is Over Before You Know It

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date September 16, 2011

Science journalist Hans Villarica wrote about the groundbreaking panic attack research of SMU psychologists Dr. Alicia Meuret, Dr. David Rosenfield and Dr. Thomas Ritz in the The Atlantic.

The Sept. 16 article “The Upside of a Panic Attack: The Worst Is Over Before You Know It” details the startling findings of Meuret’s newest published study showing significant physiological instability in advance of so-called out-of-the-blue panic attacks.

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EXCERPT:

By Hans Villarica
The Atlantic
There are plenty of misperceptions about panic attacks. People often tell the anxiety ridden to “take a deep breath,” for instance, when they may actually already be taking too much oxygen in by hyperventilating. Indeed, what experts say is that breathing should instead be slow, shallow, and regular, so that a constant, very small stream of air comes in through the nose. Paper bags are optional too, as cupped hands do the trick just as well.

New research aims to debunk another myth: Panic attacks occur completely out of the blue. Though those who panic don’t realize it, their attacks are in fact foreshadowed by minute physiological signals, according to a study led by Southern Methodist University’s Alicia Meuret in the journal Biological Psychiatry. “The hour before panic onset was marked by subtle but significant waves of changes in patient’s breathing and cardiac activity, not just the moment of onset of the attack or even during the attack,” she says. “Our analysis provided us with a whole different pattern.”

That pattern goes like this: Physiological instabilities occur in repeated bouts or waves and are often initiated by heart rate accelerations, followed by changes in breathing and carbon dioxide levels. Ultimately, breathing becomes much shallower, causing a spike in carbon dioxide levels that lead to symptoms that could no longer escape the attention of those who panic. More precisely, they experience terrifying sensations, such as dizziness, air hunger, and shortness of breath.

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Tags Alicia E. Meuret, David Rosenfield, Dedman College, SMU Department of Psychology, Thomas Ritz

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