title: Salivary cortisol and self-reported stress among persons with environmental annoyance.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Increased vulnerability to stress has been suggested as a possible mechanism behind medically unexplained conditions such as sensitivity to electricity and common smells. This study examined whether subjective environmental annoyance among the general population is associated with increased physiological reactivity or subjective stress scores.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four groups were studied (N=141): an electrically annoyed (N=17), a smell-annoyed (N=29), and a generally annoyed group (N=39) and a reference group matched for age, gender, and socioeconomic status (N=56). Over 5 days, the participants collected saliva for cortisol determination at awakening, 30 minutes after awakening, 8 hours after awakening, and at 9 o'clock in the evening. On the evening preceding the fifth day, the participants ingested a 0.5-mg dexamethasone tablet so that possible differential suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis could be assessed. Each day, the participants also rated their subjective stress and health complaints.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant differences were found between the groups regarding cortisol secretion over 5 days. The dexamethasone suppression test showed inhibited cortisol secretion in all four groups. No associations were found between the cortisol concentrations and the self-reported stress scores or subjective health complaints.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the environmentally annoyed groups showed no signs of increased HPA-axis activation, being annoyed by both electrical devices and smells seems to be related to increased psychological activation in terms of self-reported stress. Because the participants were otherwise healthy and recruited from the general population, the results imply that subtle psychological stress processes may be important in the early development of environmental annoyance.
authors: Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Barngatan 2, Lund University Hospital, 22185 Lund, Sweden. frida.carlsson@med.lu.se
authors: Frida
authors: F
authors: Carlsson
authors: Roger
authors: R
authors: Persson
authors: Björn
authors: B
authors: Karlson
authors: Kai
authors: K
authors: Osterberg
authors: Ase Marie
authors: AM
authors: Hansen
authors: Anne Helene
authors: AH
authors: Garde
authors: Palle
authors: P
authors: Orbaek