title: Endocrine and cardiovascular responses to a series of graded physical and psychological stress stimuli in healthy volunteers.
abstract: To investigate the endocrine and cardiovascular responses to a series of psychological and physical stress stimuli and to investigate the possibility of a stimulus intensity-response relation of endocrine and cardiovascular reactivity, 18 healthy volunteers were exposed to psychological and physical stimuli of increasing intensity. Each volunteer participated in three experimental sessions on separate days. The sequence of the sessions was such that all volunteers first participated in a session in which they were not exposed to a stress stimulus, i.e. the control session. Then they were randomly assigned to enter two trial sessions in which they were consecutively exposed to a series of psychological stressors and a series of physical stressors. During each session blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) were assessed and blood samples were taken, to determine cortisol and noradrenaline levels. During the physical stress session increments in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and noradrenaline were observed, proportional to the intensity of the stimuli. In contrast, during the psychological stress session pronounced increments in heart rate were observed, with maximum responses at the second and third stimuli. Diastolic blood pressure responses showed a similar pattern, whereas no changes in noradrenaline were observed. Plasma cortisol was not increased by the psychological stressor, whereas it was stimulated by the physical stressor but at the highest stimulus intensity only. Although the size of the study population precludes any firm conclusions, the results suggest that a stimulus intensity approach in human stress research is possible. Furthermore, the results also appear to indicate that the cardiovascular and pituitary-adrenal systems may display stress-specific responses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: F W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Kok
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Westenberg
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Thijssen
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: van Ree
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D003080:Cold Temperature; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology*; D006728:Hormones / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000097:blood; D011312:Pressure; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: D006728:Hormones; D006854:Hydrocortisone; D009638:Norepinephrine