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17 papers
This 2001 review looked at studies on exercise, anxiety, depression, and stress. It found that short-term emotional effects of exercise are mixed, but many cross-sectional and longitudinal studies report that regular aerobic exercise training reduces anxiety and depression symptoms and may protect against the harmful effects of stress. The clearest…
This study followed 1,604 U.S. adults older than 60 for six years. It found that people who said they felt lonely (43% of the group) were more likely to have worse day-to-day function and were more likely to die. After the researchers adjusted for age, wealth, living situation, depression, and…
Many children and teens do not get enough sleep. Studies link use of screens, especially in the bedroom or in the hour before bed, to later bedtimes and less total sleep. Experts have set sleep-hour ranges for each age. Research also links short or disrupted sleep to emotional, behavioral, and…
This review combined results from 10 intervention studies to see if physical activity programs change cortisol (a stress hormone) and sleep in adults. The pooled results found lower cortisol after activity programs and some improvement in sleep quality. The authors say the evidence is moderate for cortisol and low for…
In a remote, randomized trial (NCT05304000), people did one of three five-minute daily breathing exercises or five minutes of mindfulness meditation each day for one month. The researchers measured mood, anxiety, and physiological arousal (breathing rate, heart rate, and heart rate variability). Breathwork—especially exhale-focused cyclic sighing—produced bigger mood gains and…
This randomized study tested a breathing-based meditation (Sudarshan Kriya yoga) in 21 male U.S. veterans of the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. Participants were randomly assigned to the meditation group (n = 11) or a waitlist control (n = 10). The meditation group showed reductions in self-reported PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and…
This randomized noninferiority clinical trial examines the effect of internet-delivered vs face-to-face cognitive behavior therapy especially in light of resources, access, and cost.
This article introduces a journal issue about debilitating performance anxiety. It says clinicians often treat problems like public speaking anxiety, stage fright, test-taking anxiety, and writing block that can threaten careers or make people perform below their abilities. The article notes an estimated 2% of the U.S. population has this…
This small randomized pilot study tested a therapy called Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy (MABT) as an extra treatment for women in substance use disorder (SUD) care. Forty-six women were enrolled and those in the MABT group received eight weekly one-on-one sessions in addition to usual care. At the main…
This randomized trial put 74 adults with moderate-to-high perceived stress into either an 8-session mindful walking program over 4 weeks or a waiting-list control. After 4 weeks, the mindful walking group had a much larger drop in perceived stress scores than the control group. The study also reported better quality-of-life…
This 2020 review looked at English studies on yogic breathing (pranayamas) published from 2008 to 2018. The authors screened 1,588 articles and analyzed 14 that met their criteria. Those 14 papers generally reported effects of pranayama on emotional states and on thinking or cognitive performance. The review also said the…
This randomized trial tested whether a single short bout of walking, meditation, or a combination changed short-term anxiety in young adults. One hundred ten university students (mean age 21.4 years) were randomly assigned to 10 minutes of walking, 10 minutes of meditation, walking then meditation, meditation then walking, or sitting.…
