Biology:Hypermerimna

From HandWiki

Hypermerimna (/ˌhpərməˈrɪmnə/; from el ὑπέρ (hyper) 'over', and μέριμνα (merimna) 'anxiety') is an inability to remove focus from anxiety-producing stimuli, which may be caused by damage to the attention control centers of the brain.

Causes

Hypermerimna is observed when a subject with anxiety has difficulty in disengaging from novel stimuli, and may be caused by damage to the brain's pre-frontal control regions.[1][2][3][4] The patterns of disrupted attentional control relate to findings of disrupted performance on executive functions tasks, such as working memory across a wide number of different disorder groups.[5]

Treatment

Hypermerimna may respond to standard treatment for painful conditions if the anxiety is induced by pain, using various drugs such as SSRIs or tricyclic antidepressants.[6]

See also

References

  1. Kalisch, R., Wiech, K., Critchley, H.D., Seymour, B., O’Doherty, J.P., Oakley, D.A., Allen, P., Dolan, R.J (2005). "Anxiety reduction through detachment: subjective, physiological, and neural effects.". Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17 (6): 874–83. doi:10.1162/0898929054021184. PMID 15969906. 
  2. Pacheco-Unguetti, Antonia Pilar; Acosta, Alberto; Callejas, Alicia; Lupiáñez, Juan (2010). "Attention and anxiety: different attentional functioning under state and trait anxiety.". Psychological Science 21 (2): 298–304. doi:10.1177/0956797609359624. PMID 20424060. 
  3. Conway, Andrew R. A.; Cowan, Nelson; Bunting, Michael F. (2001-06-01). "The cocktail party phenomenon revisited: The importance of working memory capacity" (in en). Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 8 (2): 331–335. doi:10.3758/BF03196169. ISSN 1069-9384. PMID 11495122. 
  4. Pashler, H; Johnston, JC; Ruthruff, E (2001-01-01). "Attention and Performance". Annual Review of Psychology 52 (1): 629–651. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.629. PMID 11148320. 
  5. Astle, Duncan E.; Scerif, Gaia (2009-03-01). "Using developmental cognitive neuroscience to study behavioral and attentional control" (in en). Developmental Psychobiology 51 (2): 107–118. doi:10.1002/dev.20350. ISSN 1098-2302. PMID 18973175. 
  6. "Usefulness of antidepressants for improving the neuropathic pain-like state and pain-induced anxiety through actions at different brain sites". Neuropsychopharmacology 33 (8): 1952–65. July 2008. doi:10.1038/sj.npp.1301590. PMID 17957217.