Active clinical trials for "Stress, Psychological"

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in Austria. The ESC guidelines recommend cardiac rehabilitation after coronary events (acute coronary syndrome, myocardial infarction, etc) with the highest level of evidence. Drug therapy and non-pharmacological measures such as a targeted and individualized exercise program, stress management programs, reduction of cardiovascular risk parameters through training, nutritional counseling, smoking cessation, etc. reduce the cardiovascular risk of recurrence. The reduction of psychosocial stress is regarded as one of the major factors in cardiac rehabilitation, alongside physical training and nutrition. In this study, transcendental meditation (TM) and yoga will be added on top of regular cardiac rehabilitation to investigate the efficiency of these methods to possibly improve the quality of life of recovering patients. Both methods are believed to reduce stress for users, while being relatively easy to introduce to and implement in daily life for beginners, carrying no extra cost for them further down the line. The main hypothesis is that cardiac patients undergoing rehabilitation plus TM or yoga therapy will show changes in endothelial function, micobiome and stress levels. Three groups of 10 participants from a cardiac cardiac rehabilitation will be subjected to standard rehabilitation, rehabilitation with meditation, and rehabilitation with yoga, respectively. The vascular state of each patient will be closely monitored over the 4 weeks, as well as after a 1-year follow up. Furthermore, the expected stress reductions will be assessed in short term and long-term by researching hair cortisol levels, on top of self-reporting questionnaires.

In motor learning, it is essential to consider that movements are produced by the cooperation and combination of many brain structures and are influenced by the emotions to which individuals are subjected. Several neural circuits have been identified that closely link the emotional system and the motion control system. Stress is a physiological or psychological response to internal or external stressors. In principle, it has an adaptive role. However, the neuroendocrine and autonomic response generated by stress can affect cognitive processes such as memory. In addition, it has been shown to influence motor learning, especially the execution of skills in the early stages of learning. Understanding how movement, emotions and interactions are regulated is significant because of the large number of movements humans perform. Of these, manual tasks represent precise movements that require the integration of many elements by the nervous system to perform these tasks successfully. It is still unknown how acute stress influence the way manual tasks are learned. On the other hand, motor imagery (MI) is a cognitive process that is an important contributor to how movements are planned and executed. Its use has been recommended to improve movement learning and task execution. For an MI program to be effective and individualized, it is imperative to know this ability. However, it is also still unknown how acute stress can affect our motor imagery ability. The main objective of this study is to determine and quantify the effects of acute stress in the learning of a precise manual task not previously trained on four parameters of fine motor control: trajectory error, timing error, timing accuracy, and task accuracy. On the other hand, the aim is to determine if the capacity of internal visual, external visual, and kinesthetic imagery, and the temporal congruence between movement execution and imagery varies when we are subjected to acute stress. It is expected that non-anxious, non-stressed participants who are not induced with acute stress will show better motor performance on the fine motor task and better motor imagery ability and temporal congruence. In contrast, it is expected that participants without anxiety and stress who are induced with acute stress will show poorer motor performance on the fine motor task, and poorer motor imagery ability and temporal congruence.

Virtual reality application, which is a non-pharmacological method, is used for different purposes in many different fields. One of the areas where virtual reality application is used is health services. Its use in the field of obstetrics is new. Virtual reality application is often in pregnancy; it is used to reduce pain, stress and anxiety levels, exercise training and train pregnant women to effectively manage their pain during childbirth. Although pregnancy is a normal physiological process, adverse situations may occur that can make every pregnancy risky. Threatened premature birth, which is called the onset of uterine contractions without cervical changes between the 20th and 37th weeks of pregnancy, is also among these risk groups. Pregnant women diagnosed with the threat of premature birth are usually treated by hospitalization. Psychological problems such as stress, fear and anxiety may develop in pregnant women who are on bed rest in the hospital. In these pregnant women, mother-infant attachment may also be adversely affected. Pregnant women who are hospitalized and taken to bed rest due to risky pregnancy need to be informed and supported by health personnel. The midwife's spending enough time with the pregnant woman, keeping in touch and meeting her needs increase satisfaction in terms of care. When the literature was examined, it was determined that pregnant women were satisfied with the virtual reality application and thus increased care satisfaction.

Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a newly implemented evaluation standard for medical students and is a determinant part of the national competition they have to undergo. Exam periods are significantly associated with increased stress and anxiety which led to reduced performance, impaired memorization and impaired workload capacities. Cardiac biofeedback and mindfulness techniques are efficient methods for stress reduction. Interventions that aim to mobilize competence, such as mobilization of inner strength and resources techniques, should improve the level of preparation of medical students. These three procedures could influence the stress level and improve performance during the OSCE. There is currently no study exploring the effect of these physiological and psychological procedures on the performance during OSCE for medical students.

The experimental nature of this study will provide the empirical data in analyzing the effectiveness of gratitude exercises which later can be adapted in stress reduction programs at school level. This research will focus on the school related positive life experiences for example thinking about a teacher/mentor kindness and contribution in their lives, then write a letter that describes their gratitude & letter will be delivered to that person indirectly. This may help in focusing on the positive aspects of school life. This modification will serve as testing this new model for assessing the combined effect of gratitude interventions.

Expressive writing and motivational interviewing are well-known approaches to help patients handle stressful life events. While these methods are often applied by human counselors, it is less well understood if an automated approach can encourage behavior changes in patients. This study presents an automated writing system and evaluates its impact on individual behavior related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The investigators developed a rule-based dialogue system for "Expressive Interviewing" to elicit writing from participants on the subject of how COVID-19 has impacted their lives. In May-June 2021, the investigators randomly assigned online participants (N=151) to the Expressive Interviewing task and a control condition. The investigators examined their behavior with a survey before the intervention, immediately after, and two weeks after. In aggregate, task participants experienced a significant decrease in stress in the short-term (~23% decrease, p < 0.001) and no significant changes in longer-term outcomes compared to the control group. Within the task, participants showed different outcomes based on their writing. Participants who wrote with more anxiety-related words showed a greater short-term decrease in stress (R=-0.264, p<0.001), and those who wrote with more positive emotion words reported a more meaningful experience (R=0.243, p=0.001). For longer-term effects, participants who wrote with more lexical diversity underwent an increase in social activity (R=0.266, p<0.001). Expressive Interviewing can generally help with mental health in the short term but not longer-term, and participants' writing choices may make a difference in outcomes. While there were no significant long-term effects observed, the positive short term effect points to potential future directions with a series of Expressive Interviewing interventions for longer-term effects.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the blood flow to the heart during stress and assess changes in blood flow after psychological treatment in participants with coronary artery disease. The aims of the study are to assess the effects of heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback (versus usual care) on global and regional myocardial blood flow (MBF), peripheral vascular function, and autonomic changes during mental stress.

The onset of Psychosis forces family members to bear a heavy burden of care. The mental well-being of the family is so complicated that it is important to relieve their psychological stresses. Although family psychoeducation has been established as an evidence-based practice especially for schizophrenia, few studies have primarily intended to reduce the distress of the family due to the burden of care. MacFarlane's multifamily psychoeducation is one of the representative models of a group setting, which is based on the behavioral therapeutic approach. In such psychological interventions, it has been emphasized to focus on the strengths that a person originally has for coping with difficulties. The intervention of mainly drawing the strengths from the family might empower them and lighten their psychological burden. The first 2-5 years from the onset of psychosis is regarded as the critical period to improve the prognosis, so the intervention including more recent-onset psychotic patients might be of use. With regard to a setting of the psychoeducational intervention, a homogeneous group one can make the program better fitted for their problems. The present study aims to examine if the strength-based family psychoeducaiton for youth psychosis in a group setting in addition to the treatment as usual would be more effective for alleviating the psychological distresses of the family than the treatment as usual alone. Moreover, its impact on the family of recent-onset psychosis is explored as the subgroup.

Children who become critically ill and require Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)hospitalization may develop negative psychological outcomes following discharge. This pilot study will test a nursing intervention that seeks to promote child comfort, sleep and psychological well-being during and following PICU hospitalization. Study objectives are to: test the feasibility and acceptability of a PICU comfort care intervention that can be administered by nursing staff examine the feasibility and acceptability of data collection procedures pilot test outcome measures determine effect sizes to inform sample size calculation for a future multi-centred randomized controlled trial (RCT). The intervention will take place in the PICU, and consists of a parental soothing activity followed by a quiet period in which earmuffs are placed over the child's ears to block noise. Children's sleep time and comfort level will be monitored in the PICU, and the investigators will follow them for 3 months post-discharge to examine the effects of the intervention on psychological well-being.

Major depressive disorder affects over 120 million people worldwide. Only 50% of Americans with depression receive adequate treatment, and one-third of those receiving treatment do not benefit. In this pilot project investigators will bring together two approaches that have the promise to reach large numbers of depression sufferers: a skills-based intervention for increasing positive affect and experiences in depressed individuals, delivered in an inexpensive self-paced mobile format. The study will make use of smartphone technology to improve conventional outcome measurement via in-the-moment emotion sampling and mobile assessment of heart rate variability, a predictor of cardiac health that may mediate some of the health effects of depression. The aims are: 1) Retool the existing web-based positive emotion intervention for use on smartphones, with innovative exercises that help participants bring the skills they are learning into real- life situations; 2) Measure heart rate variability and emotions using existing smartphone software; and 3) Perform a randomized pilot trial of the mobile intervention on individuals with clinical depression recruited online.