Protein-source tryptophan as an efficacious treatment for social anxiety disorder: a pilot study.

Until recently, intact protein that is rich in tryptophan was not seen as an alternative to pharmaceutical-grade tryptophan because protein also contains large neutral amino acids (LNAAs) that compete for transport sites across the blood-brain barrier. Recent evidence indicates that when deoiled gourd seed (a rich source of tryptophan with approximately 22 mg/g protein) is combined with glucose (a carbohydrate that reduces serum levels of competing LNAAs) a clinical effect similar to that of pharmaceutical-grade tryptophan is achieved. Objective and subjective measures of anxiety in those suffering from social phobia (also known as social anxiety disorder) were employed to measure changes in anxiety in response to a stimulus as part of a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study with a wash-out period of 1 week between study sessions. Subjects were randomly assigned to start with either (i) protein-source tryptophan (deoiled gourd seed) in combination with carbohydrate or (ii) carbohydrate alone. One week after the initial session, subjects returned for a follow-up session and received the opposite treatment of that received at the first session. All 7 subjects who began the study completed the 2-week protocol. Protein-source tryptophan with carbohydrate, but not carbohydrate alone, resulted in significant improvement on an objective measure of anxiety. Protein-source tryptophan combined with a high glycemic carbohydrate is a potential anxiolytic to those suffering from social phobia.

Relaciones entre la sensibilidad a la ansiedad y el miedo a volar en avión / Anxiety sensitivity and its relationship to fear of flying

En el presente estudio se analizan las relaciones entra la sensibilidad a la ansiedad (SA), uno de los elementos centrales del modelo de expectativa de Reiss (1980, 1991), que la señalan como un importante factor de riesgo para los trastornos de ansiedad, y el miedo a volar en avión. Las fobias específicas son el único trastorno de ansiedad en el que, hasta el momento, no se han encontrado evidencias claras de que SA presente niveles mas elevados de los que aparecen en muestras de sujetos no ansiosos. La relación SA y miedo a volar en avión fue analizada en una muestra no clínica de 523 sujetos, evaluados con el 'Índice de Sensibilidad a la Ansiedad' (ASI). Se encontró una SA elevada en los sujetos con miedo a volar y que una mayor intensidad del miedo estaba asociada con una mayor SA La mayoría de ítems del AS¡ servían para discriminar entre sujetos con y sin miedo a volar. La SA estaba relacionada con variables de la intensidad del miedo a volar y con las expectativas de peligro. No se hallaron diferencias en SA al clasificar los sujetos con miedo a volar según el componente principal de su miedo. Se aportan datos descriptivos y psicometricos sobre la versión catalana del ASI (AU)