Anger and anxiety

Some researchers think that anxiety and anger are linked and that a genetic predisposition to over-react to things, or to see them as a threat, leads some people to worry and fret, developing an anxiety disorder, while others become angry and lash out. Other people think that the anger felt by people with an anxiety disorder is due to the depression that they often also feel and not their anxiety. Researchers from Florida State University used information from 5,692 people who took part in the National Comorbidity Survey. They found that there was a link between anxiety and anger, independent of depression, but that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and panic disorder were 'not consistently associated with anger experience and expression.'

Hawkins, Kirsten A. and Cougle, Jesse R. - Anger problems across the anxiety disorders: findings from a population-based study Depression and Anxiety doi: 10.1002/da.20764

Light the blue touch paper, stand back and see what happens

Researchers from the University of Valencia have been making 30 Spanish men angry to see what happens. The researchers were looking to see what happens in people's brains and bodies rathe than how they behaved. They read the men 50 phrases designed to make them angry. They found that when the men got angry their heart rate, arterial tension and testosterone production increased and their levels of the stress hormone cortisol decreased. The left hemisphere of the men's brains became more stimulated, especially in the frontal and temporal lobes.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100531082603.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader