Identifying factors that influence how individuals who smoke cigarettes respond to stress is important as stress is a risk factor for smoking and its maintenance. This study examined the modulatory role of cardiac vagal control (CVC), a physiological correlate of self-regulation, on cognitive stress appraisal processes of adults who smoke. Sixty daily cigarette smokers were randomized to receive positive or negative feedback during a modified Trier Social Stress Test. Pre- and post-task stress appraisals were assessed and resting and reactivity CVC measures were computed. Moderated regression models assessed if the relation between feedback condition and post-task stress appraisal varied as a function of CVC. We hypothesized that participants receiving negative feedback would report greater post-task stress appraisal compared to participants receiving positive feedback, and the strength of the effect of both feedback groups would be greater at higher levels of CVC. All models showed significant main effects of feedback condition (b =  - 0.42, p = 0.01; b =  - 0.45, p = 0.01) on post-task stress appraisal: participants receiving negative feedback reported greater post-task stress appraisal. No significant main or interactive effects of CVC and feedback condition on post-task stress appraisal were observed. This study demonstrates that stress appraisals of daily cigarette smokers are sensitive to social feedback, but are not moderated by individual differences in CVC. Future investigations are needed to clarify whether this finding is explained by smoking-specific impairments in CVC as well as the distinct and interactive effects of physiological and psychological processes implicated in stress and smoking risk.

Purpose

We evaluated the effects of device guided, slow-paced respiration on urgency associated urinary symptoms, perceived stress and anxiety, and autonomic function in women with overactive bladder syndrome.

Materials and methods

We performed a randomized, parallel group trial of slow-paced respiration to improve perceived stress and autonomic dysfunction as potential contributors to overactive bladder. Ambulatory women who reported at least 3 voiding or incontinence episodes per day associated with moderate to severe urgency were randomized to use a portable biofeedback device to practice daily, slow, guided breathing exercises or a control device which appeared identical and was reprogrammed to play music without guiding breathing. During 12 weeks we evaluated changes in urinary symptoms by voiding diaries, perceived stress and anxiety by validated questionnaires, and autonomic function by heart rate variability and impedance cardiography.

Results

In the 161 randomized participants, including 79 randomized to paced respiration and 82 randomized to the control group, the average ± SD baseline frequency of voiding or incontinence associated with moderate to severe urgency was 6.9 ± 3.4 episodes per day. Compared to controls the participants randomized to paced respiration demonstrated greater improvement in perceived stress (average Perceived Stress Scale score decrease 2.8 vs 1.1, p=0.03) but not in autonomic function markers. During 12 weeks the average frequency of voiding or incontinence associated with moderate to severe urgency, which was the study primary outcome, decreased by a mean of 0.9 ± 3.2 episodes per day but no significant between group difference was detected.

Conclusions

Among women with overactive bladder slow-paced respiration was associated with a modest improvement in perceived stress during 12 weeks. However, it was not superior to a music listening control for reducing urinary symptoms or changing autonomic function.

Objective

Mindfulness-based interventions have been found to reduce psychological and physiological stress reactivity. In obesity, however, stress reactivity is complex, with studies showing both exaggerated and blunted physiological responses to stressors. A nuanced view of stress reactivity is the "challenge and threat" framework, which defines adaptive and maladaptive patterns of psychophysiological stress reactivity. We hypothesized that mindfulness training would facilitate increased challenge-related appraisals, emotions, and cardiovascular reactivity, including sympathetic nervous system activation paired with increased cardiac output (CO) and reduced total peripheral resistance (TPR) compared to a control group, which would exhibit an increased threat pattern of psychophysiological reactivity to repeated stressors.

Methods

Adults (N=194) with obesity were randomized to a 5.5-month mindfulness-based weight loss intervention or an active control condition with identical diet-exercise guidelines. Participants were assessed at baseline and 4.5 months later using the Trier Social Stress Task. Electrocardiogram, impedance cardiography, and blood pressure were acquired at rest and during the speech and verbal arithmetic tasks to assess pre-ejection period (PEP), CO, and TPR reactivity.

Results

Mindfulness participants showed significantly greater maintenance of challenge-related emotions and cardiovascular reactivity patterns (higher CO and lower TPR) from pre to post-intervention compared to control participants, but groups did not differ in PEP. Findings were independent of changes in body mass index.

Conclusions

Mindfulness training may increase the ability to maintain a positive outlook and mount adaptive cardiovascular responses to repeated stressors among persons with obesity though findings need to be replicated in other populations and using other forms of mindfulness interventions.

Objective

Mindfulness-based interventions have been found to reduce psychological and physiological stress reactivity. In obesity, however, stress reactivity is complex, with studies showing both exaggerated and blunted physiological responses to stressors. A nuanced view of stress reactivity is the "challenge and threat" framework, which defines adaptive and maladaptive patterns of psychophysiological stress reactivity. We hypothesized that mindfulness training would facilitate increased challenge-related appraisals, emotions, and cardiovascular reactivity, including sympathetic nervous system activation paired with increased cardiac output (CO) and reduced total peripheral resistance (TPR) compared to a control group, which would exhibit an increased threat pattern of psychophysiological reactivity to repeated stressors.

Methods

Adults (N=194) with obesity were randomized to a 5.5-month mindfulness-based weight loss intervention or an active control condition with identical diet-exercise guidelines. Participants were assessed at baseline and 4.5 months later using the Trier Social Stress Task. Electrocardiogram, impedance cardiography, and blood pressure were acquired at rest and during the speech and verbal arithmetic tasks to assess pre-ejection period (PEP), CO, and TPR reactivity.

Results

Mindfulness participants showed significantly greater maintenance of challenge-related emotions and cardiovascular reactivity patterns (higher CO and lower TPR) from pre to post-intervention compared to control participants, but groups did not differ in PEP. Findings were independent of changes in body mass index.

Conclusions

Mindfulness training may increase the ability to maintain a positive outlook and mount adaptive cardiovascular responses to repeated stressors among persons with obesity though findings need to be replicated in other populations and using other forms of mindfulness interventions.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

We present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and behavioural research. An accompanying online application allows users to complete the form and generate a report that they can submit with their manuscript or post to a public repository.

We conducted a preregistered multilaboratory project (k = 36; N = 3,531) to assess the size and robustness of ego-depletion effects using a novel replication method, termed the paradigmatic replication approach. Each laboratory implemented one of two procedures that was intended to manipulate self-control and tested performance on a subsequent measure of self-control. Confirmatory tests found a nonsignificant result (d = 0.06). Confirmatory Bayesian meta-analyses using an informed-prior hypothesis (δ = 0.30, SD = 0.15) found that the data were 4 times more likely under the null than the alternative hypothesis. Hence, preregistered analyses did not find evidence for a depletion effect. Exploratory analyses on the full sample (i.e., ignoring exclusion criteria) found a statistically significant effect (d = 0.08); Bayesian analyses showed that the data were about equally likely under the null and informed-prior hypotheses. Exploratory moderator tests suggested that the depletion effect was larger for participants who reported more fatigue but was not moderated by trait self-control, willpower beliefs, or action orientation.