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Flashcards in Stress, anxiety and health Deck (31)
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1
Q

What are the 3 characters of stress and examples of each of these

A

Subjective sensations - headache, nausea, fatigue, muscle tension

Behaviour - crying, smoking, drinking, problems concentrating

Health - CVD, cancer, colds, skin disease, depression

2
Q

What is eustress?

A

Beneficial stress - optimal performance

energised, focused, work feels effortless

3
Q

What is stress?

A
A response (physiological, emotional)
A stimulus (an event)
A cognitive appraisal (coping)
4
Q

What controls the fight or flight response?

A

Sympathetic NS

Adrenal cortical system

5
Q

What is general adaptation syndrome? (Selye)

A

A physiological response pattern to stress
The health affects of stress are diseases of adaption - a normal response to an abnormal situation

Immediate depression in physiological activity in response to a single stress, followed by a period of increased activity. In response to continuing stress, physiological system starts to slow down reaching a stage of exhaustion.
If a second stresser is introduced, the period of resistance to stress is very brief

6
Q

Who came up with the general adaptation syndrome?

A

Selye

7
Q

What does the general adaption syndrome explain?

A

Occupational burn out e.g. in health staff

8
Q

How does stress affect the immune system?

A

Depresses immune function

9
Q

What are some of the psyhcoligcal reactions to stress?

A

Cognitive impairment (concentration, disorganised thoughts)
Anger
Depression
Anxiety

10
Q

What is PTSD?

A

a natural emotional reaction to a deeply shocking and disturbing experience i.e. a normal reaction to an abnormal situation

11
Q

What are the key features of PTSD?

A

repeated re-living of a traumatic event
avoidance of memories and emotional blunting (withdrawal)
persistent symptoms of hyper arousal (e.g. easily shocked, jumping) and survivor guilt

12
Q

What is the social re-adjustment scale? Holmes & Rahe 1967

A

Can stressful events be put on a scale and can this be related to susceptibility to health problems?

e.g. the events requiring the most social re-adjustment are death of a spouse, or divorce, jail time

13
Q

What is the hassles and uplifts scale? Lazarus and Folkman, 1981

A

Rates how much each item (e.g children, parents, relatives, spouse, sex, health of family member, friends) was a hassle or a uplift that day, which can be linked to susceptibility of eating ill e.g. a cold

14
Q

What are the difficulties with linking major life events to major health problems?

A

Breast cancer study Protheroe - malignancies not associated with life events and difficulties

(although, there is better evidence now so a weak link)

15
Q

What did Cooper and Faragher’s breast screening study show?

What were the issues with this study?

A

Malignancy was associated with a single major life event
Weak relationship, but significant

BUT those who went to screening are more likely to have breast cancer in their family etc.

16
Q

What is a type a behaviour pattern?

A

Type A people are 2x as likely to have a heart attack

personality type is a risk factor

17
Q

What is type A behaviour?

A

thinking of or doing two things at once
scheduling more and more activities into less and less time
hurrying the speech of others
becoming unduly irritated when waiting in line or in slow moving traffic
having difficulty sitting and doing nothing
playing nearly every game to win, even when playing with children
etc.

competitiveness, time urgency, hostility

18
Q

What were the mixed outcomes of the type A CVD study?

A

Related to coronary atherosclerosis only in under 45s

Type A survivors of heart attack less likely to die in next few years than type B

19
Q

What are modifiable and less modifiable risks?

A

Some risks are genetic and cannot be changed
Behavioural risk can be changed

Lifestyle interventions can therefore be successful in reducing health issues

20
Q

What is the Ornish programme?

A

Diet, exercise, stress management, group support

21
Q

What is a life-course approach to life events? What effect do ACEs have?

A

A whole set of exposures throughout life make up an accumulation of events

Adverse childhood events can mean you’re more likely to suffer health problem/mental illness. Some events can effect development.

22
Q

What is the main reason ACEs cause early death?

A

Disrupted neurodevelopment causes social, emotional and cognitive impairment

this causes adoption of health-risk behaviours

this causes disease, disability and social problems

23
Q

Links between stress and anxiety

A
Physical symptoms (raised heart rate, tension, dizzy, headache)
Thoughts and feelings (on edge, will lose control, might die) --> out of proportion to the threats and persist
24
Q

What is the problem with uncertainty?

A

Drives worry (what if..?) and leads you to overestimate risk

25
Q

How is uncertainty shown?

A
Seeking excessive reassurance
list making
double checking
refusing to delegate
procrastination
avoidance
distraction
26
Q

What are appraisal approaches to stress?

A

Focus on person-environment transaction

Key perceptions are controllability (can stop/start something) and predictability (know if/when something occurs)

27
Q

What is the primary appraisal process?

A

Perception of demands - potential for threat, harm challenge

28
Q

What is secondary appraisal?

A

Capacity to manage the threat of the primary concern - available coping methods

29
Q

What are problem focused strategies for coping with stress?

A

Changing the situation

Avoiding the situation in the future

30
Q

What are emotion focused coping strategies fro stress?

A

Behavioural - exercise, drinking, venting anger

Cognitive - denial, rumination, discussion

31
Q

Examples of ways to manage stress

A

Relaxation training & biofeedback (measuring heart rate, muscle tension etc Meditation
Exercise (physiological and self perception effects)