Summary: New research has revealed that people with distress-related problems like depression, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder may experience impaired performance in important mental functions related to emotion regulation. According to the research, administrative functions like working memory, impulse control, and cognitive flexibility are more likely to be impacted in these people during high-stress situations.
This disturbance may affect their ability to control their emotions effectively and lower the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy ( CBT), which relies on intact executive work. The results suggest that more agile or preceding therapies may be required to enhance outcomes for those who are susceptible to stress-related mental impairments.
Important Information
- Working Memory Impaired: Acute stress drastically impairs working remembrance in depressed people.
- Borderline personality disorder sufferers experience a weakened answer inhibition under stress.
- Relevance of Therapy: Stress-induced mental deficits may impair the efficacy of treatment like CBT.
Origin: Edith Cowan University
A study from New Edith Cowan University (ECU) suggests that chronic stress may impair important head functions involved in managing emotions, particularly in those who suffer from “distress disorders” like depression, stress, and borderline personality disorder.
According to the study conducted by ECU Masters student Tee-Jay Scott and Professor Joanne Dickson, strain may partially interfere with administrative functions, which are the brain’s control methods that aid in problem-solving, planning, and mood regulation, rather than helping to improve mental focus in high-pressure situations.
According to Mr. Scott,” These administrative features are crucial for controlling psychological responses, especially in hard circumstances.”
Our findings point to the possibility that individuals with distress-related problems may be more prone to experiencing these administrative functions disrupted when they are stressed, even when their symptoms don’t match the threshold for a proper diagnosis.
Personal power tools are weakened by anxiety.
The key to maintaining emotional balance is the use of executive functions like working memory ( holding and using information ), response inhibition ( resisting impulsive actions ), and cognitive flexibility (adapting to change ).
The ECU study examined 17 international studies that examined how chronic stress affects people who exhibit borderline personality disorder, anxiety, or depression.
According to Mr. Scott,” we discovered that people with borderline personality disorder may experience impaired working remembrance, and that this is especially true of those with melancholy,” according to Mr. Scott.
Implications for treatment and cure
These problems, according to Professor Dickson, may help explain why some people don’t react well to standard treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy ( CBT), which heavily relies on these administrative functions.
She said,” Some psychological treatments are mentally demanding.”
” Affecting the mental processes that support emotion rules could destroy a person’s ability to advantage from these treatments, especially in times of heightened anguish,” said the author.
a need for novel methods
The research team claims that the results indicate that more precisely targeted treatments must be implemented to account for stress-related mental disruptions.
” This study opens up new avenues for understanding how and why grief ailments and disorders persist,” said Professor Dickson.
It also makes a point about the value of developing therapies that are more adaptable or that foster executive function before physically demanding work begins.
Subsequent ways
The study finds that administrative function impairment is present in acute situations, but the researchers argue that it is necessary to conduct more research to understand personal differences and develop treatment strategies.
Understanding how stress affects brain function is essential, according to Mr. Scott, to enhance mental wellness benefits.
” It’s not just about how much treatment is used, but also about how and when it’s delivered,” said one expert.
About this research on mental regulation and stress
Author: Joanne Dickson
Source: Edith Cowan University
Contact: Joanne Dickson – Edith Cowan University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Private entry.
Joanne Dickson and colleagues ‘” Consequences of serious stress on administrative functions in despair, generalized anxiety, and borderline personality disorder” Journal of Affective Disorders Studies
Abstract
Effects of serious stress on administrative functioning in borderline personality disorder, generalized anxiety, and depression
Background: Acute stress adaptively alters executive functions ( EFs ), which are essential for emotion regulation. The main mechanisms and dimensionality of psychology are highlighted by emerging methods of medical classification, such as the Hierarchical Classification of Psychopathology ( HiTOP) and the Research Domain Criteria.
Major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and borderline personality disorder are subfactors in the HiTOP type that exhibit altered tension reactivity, impaired feelings regulation, and reasonable response to first-line psychotherapies.
This systematic evaluation sought to determine whether distress disorders and their related symptoms increase the risk of temporary EF impairment in chronic stress and their associated symptoms.
Methods: A thorough examination of reports published before December 31st, 2022 in ProQuest, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science revealed 17 pertinent studies that examined stress-induced changes to working memory, restriction, and mental flexibility in the framework of anguish problems and their related symptoms.
Results: This review found a heightened susceptibility to borderline personality disorder’s stress-induced response inhibition and working memory impairment, even for subclinical depressive symptoms where diagnostic criteria for a depressive disorder were not met.
The study of cognitive flexibility had mixed results. Limitations: Although a thorough, systematic review was carried out, heterogeneity in study design and methods prevented the inclusion of a meta-analysis.
Conclusions: The findings support the hypothesis that altered stress reactivity causes a maladaptation of EF under acute stress and subsequent disruption of adaptive emotion regulation strategies. The investigation’s findings may help explain why therapeutic interventions based on cognitively demanding emotion regulation strategies don’t work.
