Excessive worrying may have co-evolved with intelligence

What is usually seen as pathology may aid survival of the species

Worrying may have evolved along with intelligence as a beneficial trait, according to a recent study by scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and other institutions. Jeremy Coplan, MD, professor of psychiatry at SUNY Downstate, and colleagues found that high intelligence and worry both correlate with brain activity measured by the depletion of the nutrient choline in the subcortical white matter of the brain. According to the researchers, this suggests that intelligence may have co-evolved with worry in humans.

"While excessive worry is generally seen as a negative trait and high intelligence as a positive one, worry may cause our species to avoid dangerous situations, regardless of how remote a possibility they may be," said Dr. Coplan. "In essence, worry may make people 'take no chances,' and such people may have higher survival rates. Thus, like intelligence, worry may confer a benefit upon the species."

In this study of anxiety and intelligence, patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) were compared with healthy volunteers to assess the relationship among intelligence quotient (IQ), worry, and subcortical white matter metabolism of choline. In a control group of normal volunteers, high IQ was associated with a lower degree of worry, but in those diagnosed with GAD, high IQ was associated with a greater degree of worry. The correlation between IQ and worry was significant in both the GAD group and the healthy control group. However, in the former, the correlation was positive and in the latter, the correlation was negative. Eighteen healthy volunteers (eight males and 10 females) and 26 patients with GAD (12 males and 14 females) served as subjects.

Previous studies have indicated that excessive worry tends to exist both in people with higher intelligence and lower intelligence, and less so in people of moderate intelligence. It has been hypothesized that people with lower intelligence suffer more anxiety because they achieve less success in life.

The results of their study, "The Relationship between Intelligence and Anxiety: An Association with Subcortical White Matter Metabolism," was published in a recent edition of Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience, and can be read at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3269637/pdf/fnevo-03-00008.pdf.

The study was selected and evaluated by a member of the Faculty of 1000 (F1000), placing it in their library of the top 2% of published articles in biology and medicine.

SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient's bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, Colleges of Nursing and Health Related Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, a School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and an Advanced Biotechnology Park and Biotechnology Incubator.

SUNY Downstate ranks eighth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school social worker continuing education

MAKE YOUR WORRYING WORK FOR YOU

Worrying may have a bad rep, but worrying, if it's done right, can actually be helpful. Effective worrying can anticipate and avoid problems, devise artful solutions, and expand creative possibilities. It leads to constructive action. On the other hand, ineffective worrying is what
keeps us awake at night, distracts us during the day and gives our physical systems a workout
they don't need. When you find yourself in bed at night, tossing and turning, plowing the same field again and again, you're in the midst of worry of the worst kind: self-perpetuating. The more you worry, the more stress chemicals feed back to the brain, telling it to worry more. If you find yourself mired in this worry bog, try some of these actions to put your worries to work for you:

• Get physical. Get up, move around. Action will temporarily relieve the worrying. When you come back to the problem, you may have a better perspective on it.


• Take a walk, work out, go for a bike ride or a run. Exercise increases blood flow, meaning more oxygen to the brain. Exercising regularly means you will probably worry less.


• Write down your worries in a journal. Simply writing your fears and concerns down takes some of the power out of them and gives you a sense of control. Writing your worries also gives you an opportunity to write possible solutions. Try this: write down the worry and, without thought to how workable or realistic the solutions are, write them down as fast as they come to mind. Don't stop to think, just write idea after idea. Given this creative outlet, the same brain that was nagging you with worries, can offer ingenious and often
  elegant solutions.


• Tell a friend. Ask for feedback, another perspective. Or someone to simply listen. Giving voice to your worries can take some of the wind out of their bedraggled sails.


• Make gratitude lists. Oprah Winfrey isn't the only one to recommend them. A gratitude list doesn't have to be long or well thought out. In your journal or on a sheet of paper, jot down several things you’re grateful for. They don't have to be big deals— the way the sun falls on the roses in the morning is just fine, if that's what you thought of. It certainly is not as simple as the song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy," makes it sound, but somewhere underneath
  its whining, nagging voice, worry might have something important to tell you. *