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The following articles have the tag stress
THE Heart Foundation has urged caution over suggestions the generic drug escitalopram could lower the rate of stress-induced myocardial ischaemia in patients with stable coronary heart disease (CHD).
LIBERAL backbencher and GP Dr Mal Washer has expressed concern for MP Craig Thomson's mental health.
PATIENTS who experience psychogenic non-epileptic seizures – a condition once dubbed hysteria – have not had more trauma in their lives than others but they lack coping skills to handle stress, researchers say.
WORKPLACE conditions influence postpartum mental health of working mothers, an Australian study of 1300 women shows. Four in 10 mothers return to work before their child turns one, with more than one-half returning before they want to. Research from the Parenting Research Centre and Murdoch Childrens Research Institute found that even when accepted risk factors are taken into account, lack of access to paid parental leave, inflexible hours, lack of control and job insecurity were linked to distress in mothers of young children. Only one in five women in the study returned to jobs with optimal ...
Is economic strength the only way to measure a country’s success? The UK thinks not and will start to measure wellbeing within the population. Should Australia follow suit? Kathryn Eccles reports.
Amanda Sheppeard looks at how science is exploring the link between stress and disease.
SIGNING up to the latest calorie-cutting diet might seem a surefire way to drop a few kilos and boost your self-esteem. But new research suggests the opposite: dieting is so stressful it might do more harm than good. US scientists found that dieters lost an average of 0.9 kg over three weeks but reported feeling significantly more stressed than their non-dieting counterparts. Moreover, they actually had measurably greater amounts of the stress hormone cortisol in their saliva, with levels higher after three weeks than before starting the diet. “Dieting may be deleterious to psychological wellbeing ...
IT is no secret that the demanding nature of a medical degree will inevitably cause a great deal of stress for many students. However, new research has revealed that medical students are far from alone in coping with high stress levels, and are in fact significantly less stressed than some of their peers training in other vocations. A new University of Adelaide study of 955 students in the disciplines of medicine, law, mechanical engineering and psychology revealed that 48% of the sample were “psychologically distressed”, as defined by the Kessler Measure of Psychological Distress (K10). Fifty-eight ...
It’s a common belief that stress can cause strokes. Leigh Parry looks at how much of a role it actually plays.
READING Dr Herbert Benson’s book The Relaxation Response a few years ago, I sensed he was on the right track. So many patients had anxiety- and stress-related illnesses that teaching them to relax had beneficial effects on their general health. Now, in elegant research from Harvard Medical School, Dr Benson, founder of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, has shown relaxation can produce disease-fighting genes that protect against a variety of disorders from hypertension to arthritis. Dr Benson has long advocated the “relaxation effect” and is obviously a man who regularly practises this technique. But how do you introduce ...
REFERRING younger women with skin diseases for adjunct psychological therapy may be beneficial for symptom relief, Australian researchers say. The recommendation follows a study that added weight to the theory that depression symptoms and stress were significantly associated with skin problems. A total of 6630 women aged 22–27 taken from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health answered a question on skin problems and stress levels in three surveys, in 2000, 2003 and 2006, with 8% reporting having skin problems in all three surveys. In each of the surveys, about a quarter of participants reported skin ...
THE number of stressed GPs turning to help and counselling support services has risen in a year plagued by natural disasters and the global financial crisis. According to RACGP president Dr Chris Mitchell, anecdotal evidence suggested the number of doctors accessing the college’s GP Support Program had increased noticeably in recent months. “It has been a bugger of a year – there are clearly the financial issues that have been impacting general practice, but also some major disasters, including floods and fires,” Dr Mitchell said. “Those issues make it very hard for us.” The service, ...
How are GPs coping? Helen Signy finds out. WINTER 2009: surgeries are flooded with patients thinking they have swine flu, the global financial crisis is making practice management more challenging, and the Government’s plans for primary care are leaving GPs feeling uncertain and undervalued. If you’re feeling more stressed than ever, you’re not alone. The MO Stress Test , an exclusive Medical Observer survey of nearly 500 GPs conducted by Julie Dang & Associates, found more than 50% reported worrying stress levels, with 4% saying their stress was unmanageable. And things ...
IN the 1950s only about 10% of women dyed their hair when they started to go grey, but now it’s more than 70 per cent. According to Anne Kreamer, who wrote a memoir ( Going Gray , Little Brown) about her decision to let nature take its course with her locks, this is a concerning cultural trend both disempowering women and reflecting societal reluctance to accept old age gracefully. Grey does have a bad name, not just because it symbolises growing old, but also because people instinctively link it to stress – getting ‘grey hairs’ from worrying about the kids, the mortgage ...
CREATIVE writing may prove a useful tool in helping GPs to reflect on and reassess their doctor-patient relationships, according to experts, and it can help prevent stress and burnout. To this end, the RACGP NSW & ACT faculty have organised the ‘Winter Wellbeing Retreat – Creative Writing for General Practitioners’, a retreat designed to help GPs improve their writing skills and use them to make sense of their stressful role. Speaking at the retreat will be Dr Hilton Koppe, a NSW GP and medical educator who believes creative writing could prove an invaluable outlet. “GPs really ...
***How stressed are you? Complete Medical Observer 's Stress Test survey online*** Anxiety, stress, burnout, depression – they are all too common in general practice surgeries. But we’re not talking about the patients. Kathryn Eccles looks at the issue of GPs taking care of the most important patient of all – themselves. SOUTH Australian GP Dr Bruce Groves is typical of most GPs his age. In his 50s, he agrees it is wise for GPs to have their own GP – yet he doesn’t have one himself. ...
WORKING half a day less each week can add five productive years to a GP’s career, say the authors of a new book of tips designed to help doctors better manage their time. “That means retiring at 60 instead of 55,” said Maria Gardiner, co-author of The Ultimate Time Management Guide for GPs . Ms Gardiner, a research associate at Flinders University school of psychology, said doctors must take control of their work-life balance or risk burning out. “GPs have some of the most trying conditions under which to manage their time,” she said. ...
GP registrars feeling the pressures of everyday practice will now have a new resource to draw on to help them manage their stress. Launched last week by General Practice Registrars Australia (GPRA), R Cubed – or the Registrars Resilience Resource – is a monthly online newsletter designed to provide practical advice to registrars on how to care for themselves. The resource emerged from discussions with GPRA registration liaison officers, and GPRA chair Dr Belinda Guest is hoping the new resource will assist registrars in better managing their work-life balance. “The statistics suggest there will ...
How do you recognise the signs of cyberchondria and somatisation? Dr Ginni Mansberg finds out. THEY’RE your classic heartsink patients. Their vague complaints span the systems and never seem to fit firmly into any diagnostic patterns. Their investigations are inevitably normal. Somatisers, or people who experience psychological stress as somatic symptoms, are more common than most Australian GPs originally thought. 1 More common than either depression or anxiety, somatisation is rarely mentioned in the patient’s history. For some reason, it appears the red flag isn’t going up as often as it should, ...
Kellie Bisset crunches the numbers of MO ’s annual survey on health reform. THE Rudd government has high hopes for its GP super clinics strategy, which it says is a key plank in building a stronger primary healthcare system. But the majority of Australia’s GPs remain firmly convinced that the $275 million plan to establish 31 clinics across the country is nothing but a big juicy lemon. It’s early days and negotiations are still underway on how the policy will be rolled out in each area. But the results of Medical Observer ...
WORKFORCE shortages are pushing GP registrars to their limits, with many buckling under the stress and considering quitting – a move that could threaten the future of the profession. Dire new research shows that 50% of registrars have contemplated leaving medicine altogether, and more than one in four have considered leaving general practice due to the high levels of stress during vocational training. In addition, 37% have thought about leaving their current workplace over concerns ranging from heavy workloads and difficult patients to the difficulties associated with rural terms. The findings are a blow to the ...
A young woman with a history of psoriasis presents with itchy papules on her limbs and back. CASE HISTORY A 24-YEAR-OLD Caucasian female presented to hospital with right-sided tonsillitis and quinsy, on a background history of longstanding psoriasis. Following admission, the quinsy was subsequently drained and she was improving. However, while in hospital, she had noticed small papules appearing bilaterally on her upper and lower limbs, and also her back. These were associated with a slight itch. On examination, she had multiple teardrop-sized red papules covered with scale on ...
A 55-year-old man with rosacea presents with facial erythema and telangiectasias. He is perturbed by the flushed appearance and the perception that he drinks too much. How can this man be helped? THE PROBLEM Facial telangiectasias (FT) are commonly idiopathic where small red or purple vessels are present on the cheeks, around the nose (alar groove) and the chin. These vessels are post-capillary venules rather than true capillaries and are usually less than 1 mm in diameter. Apart from being a cosmetic concern, the vessels often worsen skin flushing and ...
A 49-year-old male presents with a solitary itchy plaque over the right dorsal wrist. He admits to scratching and rubbing the area when stressed. Fig 1. Lichen simplex chronicus (LSC) PROVISIONAL DIAGNOSIS Lichen simplex chronicus (LSC) LSC is a localised plaque of chronic eczematous skin secondary to repeated scratching, rubbing or pinching of the skin. LSC typically presents as a sharply demarcated, violaceous or red scaly plaque with lichenification. LSC is more common in adults but may affect children ...