What causes Anxiety
Anxiety may be caused by a mental condition, a physical condition, the effects of drugs, or from a combination of these. The doctor’s initial task is to see if your anxiety is caused by a medical condition.
Common causes of anxiety include these mental conditions:
Panic disorder: In addition to anxiety, common symptoms of panic disorders are palpitations (feeling your heart beat), dizziness, and shortness of breath. These same symptoms also can be caused by coffee (caffeine), amphetamines (“speed” is the street slang for amphetamines when they are not prescribed by a do Read this article »
Asperger Syndrome Tied to Low Cortisol Levels (HealthDay)
THURSDAY, April 2 (HealthDay News) — Low levels of a stress
hormone may be responsible for the obsession with routine and dislike for
new experiences common in children with a certain type of autism.
U.K. researchers found that children with Asperger syndrome (AS) do
not experience the normal twofold increase of cortisol upon waking up.
Levels of the hormone in their bodies do continue to decrease throughout
the day, though, just as they do in those without the syndrome.
The body produces cortisol, among other hormones, in stressful
situations. Cortisol increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels,
among other duties, to signal the body’s need to adapt to changes
occurring around it. It’s thought that the increase shortly after waking
helps jump-start the brain for the day ahead, the researchers said.
People with Asperger syndrome notably have very repetitive or narrow
patterns of thought and behavior, such as being obsessed with either a
single object or topic. Though tending to become experts in this limited
domain, they have otherwise very limited social skills, according to the
study.
“Although these are early days, we think this difference in stress
hormone levels could be really significant in explaining why children with
AS are less able to react and cope with unexpected change,” study
co-leader Mark Brosnan, from the psychology department at the University
of Bath, said in a news release issued by the school.
If these Asperger symptoms are caused primarily by stress, caregivers
could learn to steer children away from situations that would add to
anxiety, the researchers said.
“This study suggests that children with AS may not adjust normally to
the challenge of a new environment on waking,” study researcher David
Jessop, from the University of Bristol, said in the news release. “This
may affect the way they subsequently engage with the world around them.”
The researchers, whose findings were published in the journal
Psychoneuroendocrinology, will next study if this lack of cortisol
upon waking also occurs in children with other types of autism.
Categories: Health News
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