Neuroimaging studies of alexithymia: physical, affective, and social perspectives
Alexithymia refers to difficulty in identifying and expressing one's emotions, and it is related to disturbed emotional regulation. It was originally proposed as a personality trait that plays a central role in psychosomatic diseases. This review of neuroimaging studies on alexithymia suggests that alexithymia is associated with reduced neural responses to emotional stimuli from the external environment, as well as with reduced activity during imagery, in the limbic and paralimbic areas (i.e., amygdala, insula, anterior/posterior cingulate cortex). In contrast, alexithymia is also known to be associated with enhanced neura...
Source: BioPsychiSocial Medicine - March 28, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Yoshiya MoriguchiGen Komaki Source Type: research
Psychological stress contributed to the development of low-grade fever in a patient with chronic fatigue syndrome: a case report
Conclusions:
A stress interview induced a 1.0[degree sign]C increase in axillary temperature in a CFS patient. Negative emotion-associated sympathetic activation, rather than pyretic cytokine production, contributed to the increase in temperature induced by the stress interview. This suggests that psychological stress may contribute to the development or the exacerbation of low-grade fever in some CFS patients. (Source: BioPsychiSocial Medicine)
Source: BioPsychiSocial Medicine - March 8, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Takakazu OkaYoshio KanemitsuNobuyuki SudoHaruo HayashiKae Oka Source Type: research
Reviewer acknowledgement 2012
The editors of BioPsychoSocial Medicine would like to thank all our reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 6 (2012). (Source: BioPsychiSocial Medicine)
Source: BioPsychiSocial Medicine - February 22, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Koji Tsuboi Source Type: research
A randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled crossover trial on the effects of L-ornithine on salivary cortisol and feelings of fatigue of flushers the morning after alcohol consumption
Conclusions:
Taking 400 mg ornithine after alcohol consumption improved various negative feelings and decreased the salivary stress marker cortisol the next morning. These effects were not caused by an increase in acute alcohol metabolism. (Source: BioPsychiSocial Medicine)
Source: BioPsychiSocial Medicine - February 18, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Takeshi KokuboEmiko IkeshimaTakayoshi KirisakoYutaka MiuraMasahisa HoriuchiAkira Tsuda Source Type: research
Relationship between autonomic cardiovascular control, case definition, clinical symptoms, and functional disability in adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome: An exploratory study
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is characterized by severe impairment and multiple symptoms. Autonomic dysregulation has been demonstrated in several studies. We aimed at exploring the relationship between indices of autonomic cardiovascular control, the case definition from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC criteria), important clinical symptoms, and disability in adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome. 38 CFS patients aged 12--18 years were recruited according to a wide case definition (ie. not requiring accompanying symptoms) and subjected to head-up tilt test (HUT) and a questionnaire. The relationships betwe...
Source: BioPsychiSocial Medicine - February 7, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Vegard WyllerIngrid Helland Source Type: research
Younger and older chronic somatoform pain patients in psycho-diagnostics, physician-patient relationship and treatment outcome
We examined whether there were systematic differences between young and old pain patients.
Methods:
As part of a routine evaluation of university hospital care, a newly developed psychosomatic treatment model for chronic somatoform pain disorders was examined. The basis for treatment efficacy was a target-oriented, specific somatic and psychological intervention that included a stable physician-patient relationship. Particular attention was paid to differences in treatment outcome with regard to changes in both physical and psychopathological symptom levels. We hypothesised that younger pain patients had higher psychologic...
Source: BioPsychiSocial Medicine - February 4, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Bernd BerganderLaurence ErdurBettina Kallenbach-DermutzHans-Christian Deter Source Type: research
