title: Acute stress potentiates anxiety in humans.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Stress is an important factor in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Stress also potentiates anxiety-like response in animals, but empirical evidence for a similar effect in humans is still lacking.
  
  
  METHODS
  To test whether stress increases anxiety in humans, we examined the ability of a social stressor (speech and a counting task) to potentiate the facilitation of startle in the dark. Measures of subjective distress and of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and autonomic nervous system activity (e.g., salivary cortisol, alpha-amylase, blood pressure, and heart rate) were also taken to confirm the effectiveness of the stress manipulation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Startle was significantly facilitated in the dark. This effect was potentiated by prior exposure to the social stressor. The social stressor induced increases in salivary cortisol and alpha amylase as well as increases in blood pressure, heart rate, and subjective distress.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings indicate that stress potentiates anxiety. Animal studies suggest that such an effect might be mediated by glucocorticoid effects on corticotropin-releasing hormone in limbic structures.
authors: Unit of Affective Psychophysiology, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-2670, USA. Christian.grillon@nih.gov
authors: Christian
authors: C
authors: Grillon
authors: Roman
authors: R
authors: Duncko
authors: Matthew F
authors: MF
authors: Covington
authors: Lori
authors: L
authors: Kopperman
authors: Mitchel A
authors: MA
authors: Kling
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology* / Q000378:metabolism; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D013997:Time Factors; D000516:alpha-Amylases / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000516:alpha-Amylases; D006854:Hydrocortisone
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