Essay - Anxiety, or 'Stress,' May be Chronic (Trait Anxiety) or Temporary...

Anxiety, or "stress," may be chronic (trait anxiety) ***** temporary (state anxiety) and is often triggered by life events brought on by uncontrolled circumstances or created ***** the stressor. (Garnefski, 2001) Anxiety and panic d*****orders affect an estimated 2.4 million Americans. Panic attacks are twice as common in women as in men. (Hitti, 2006)

Short-term stress doesn't have the same effect ***** long-term stress, as the following study shows. Being *****ed out for long periods of time ***** increase *****. A study published in Behavior Neuroscience, lays some ***** ***** responsibility on stress horm*****es, cortisol and corticotripin-releasing hormone, to help the body respond to threats. But if these hormones remain in any measure in the ***** over a ***** period of time, they can increase anxiety and mood disorders. The research, done by Paul Ardayfio, BSC, a graduate student in molecular neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and Bos*****n's McLean Hospital, studied female mice, to find ***** how ***** stress affects mood disorders. Corticosterone, a stress hormone was induced orally for 17 or 18 days ***** ***** mice, mimicking long-term exposure to the stress h*****mone. The control group received ***** spiked water only for the first day.

The mice got two tests, without any training: In ***** first test, the group that was allowed long-term exposure to the hormone ***** more hesitant ***** enter a well-lighted, exposed sp*****ce after having been in a dark part of the cage. The researchers interpreted the hesitancy as *****. (Hitti, 2006)

In the second *****, ***** mice were exposed to high-frequency sound. Mice under ***** exposure to corticosterone had a dulled reaction to the sound the first 10 times they heard it. This was ***** as depression.

***** ***** suggests that long-term stress may lead the one under stress to dimming reactions, ***** and being less prep*****d to handle additional stress. Hesitancy to act (anxiety) and little reaction ***** additional ***** (depression) appear to be the result of long-term stress.

***** study, published in Science, on July 17, 2003, describes variations in a gene c*****lled 5-HTT, which regulates levels of serotonin, a brain chemical. People with short versions of this gene were ***** likely to develop depression and suicidal tendencies in response to life stresses than people with a long version of the *****, according ***** Avshalom Caspi, MD. It is evident that a person's response to life ***** altered by his or her genetic makeup. Although the 5-HTT gene may not be directly associated with depression, it could moderate the amount of ***** released in response to stress, he writes. (*****)

***** their study, Caspi and colleagues followed 847 children, b*****n in the early 1970s, from birth to adulthood. Genetic studies showed ***** 17% had ***** copies ***** the *****-sensitive short ********** 31% had two copies of the protective long version, ***** 51% had ***** copy of each version.

The researchers charted stressful life events as the ***** grew up - ***** ages 21 to 26 - such as employment, financial, housing, health, and