scholarly journals Influence of a Suggestive Placebo Intervention on Psychobiological Responses to Social Stress

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Zimmermann-Viehoff ◽  
Nico Steckhan ◽  
Karin Meissner ◽  
Hans-Christian Deter ◽  
Clemens Kirschbaum
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Salivary Cortisol ◽  
Psychosocial Stress ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Alpha Amylase ◽  
Subjective Stress ◽  
Psychological Variables ◽  
Placebo Intervention

We tested the hypothesis that a suggestive placebo intervention can reduce the subjective and neurobiological stress response to psychosocial stress. Fifty-four healthy male subjects with elevated levels of trait anxiety were randomly assigned in a 4:4:1 fashion to receive either no treatment (n = 24), a placebo pill (n = 24), or a herbal drug (n = 6) before undergoing a stress test. We repeatedly measured psychological variables as well as salivary cortisol, alpha-amylase, and heart rate variability prior to and following the stress test. The stressor increased subjective stress and anxiety, salivary cortisol, and alpha-amylase, and decreased heart rate variability (all P < .001). However, no significant differences between subjects receiving placebo or no treatment were found. Subjects receiving placebo showed increased wakefulness during the stress test compared with no-treatment controls ( P < .001). Thus, the suggestive placebo intervention increased alertness, but modulated neither subjective stress and anxiety nor the physiological response to psychosocial stress.

scholarly journals The persistent effect of acute psychosocial stress on heart rate variability

2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Mohammadi ◽  
Asgar Emamgoli ◽  
Marjan Shirinkalam ◽  
Golam Hossein Meftahi ◽  
Keyvan Yagoobi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Salivary Cortisol ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Linear Features ◽  
Non Linear

Abstract Background As stress occurs repetitively every day, the biological modifiers should also have enough time to restore the normal state of hemostasis; otherwise, chronic stress would be anticipated. The aim of the present study was to examine the persistence of stress based on subjective emotion, salivary cortisol, and linear and non-linear features of heart rate variability (HRV) in both genders. Methods Thirty-three healthy young volunteers (23 men and 10 women) participating in this study were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Moreover, the emotional visual analog scale (EVAS), salivary cortisol, and ECG recording in the rest state were taken before and after TSST as well as 20 min after recovery. Results According to the results of the two-way mixed model ANOVA, all volunteers showed a significant increase in EVAS after TSST which was restored to the baseline state after recovery. Notably, the women’s base of cortisol was significantly higher than men and the standard range of kit. Cortisol elevation was only observed in the men, and the significant increase of LF/HF ratio was observed in the women, while both did not retain to the baseline after recovery. The SD1 of Poincaré plot and spectral entropy decreased after stress in both genders. Moreover, there was a significant negative correlation between baseline level of cortisol and its elevation due to stress and some features of HRV. Conclusion The base of cortisol played a critical role in modifying the physiological response to stress. In addition, after recovery, no stressful emotion remained, while the non-linear features of HRV did not return to baseline.

scholarly journals Does Psychosocial Stress Impact Cognitive Reappraisal? Behavioral and Neural Evidence

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1803-1816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maheen Shermohammed ◽  
Pranjal H. Mehta ◽  
Joan Zhang ◽  
Cassandra M. Brandes ◽  
Luke J. Chang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Psychosocial Stress ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Acute Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Cognitive Reappraisal ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Stress Group

Cognitive reappraisal (CR) is regarded as an effective emotion regulation strategy. Acute stress, however, is believed to impair the functioning of prefrontal-based neural systems, which could result in lessened effectiveness of CR under stress. This study tested the behavioral and neurobiological impact of acute stress on CR. While undergoing fMRI, adult participants ( n = 54) passively viewed or used CR to regulate their response to negative and neutral pictures and provided ratings of their negative affect in response to each picture. Half of the participants experienced an fMRI-adapted acute psychosocial stress manipulation similar to the Trier Social Stress Test, and a control group received parallel manipulations without the stressful components. Relative to the control group, the stress group exhibited heightened stress as indexed by self-report, heart rate, and salivary cortisol throughout the scan. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that reappraisal success was equivalent in the control and stress groups, as was electrodermal response to the pictures. Heart rate deceleration, a physiological response typically evoked by aversive pictures, was blunted in response to negative pictures and heightened in response to neutral pictures in the stress group. In the brain, we found weak evidence of stress-induced increases of reappraisal-related activity in parts of the PFC and left amygdala, but these relationships were statistically fragile. Together, these findings suggest that both the self-reported and neural effects of CR may be robust to at least moderate levels of stress, informing theoretical models of stress effects on cognition and emotion.

scholarly journals Physiological responses to psychological stress: importance of adiposity in men aged 50–70 years

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 110-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
S U Jayasinghe ◽  
S J Torres ◽  
C A Nowson ◽  
A J Tilbrook ◽  
A I Turner
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Stress ◽  
Salivary Cortisol ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Area Under The Curve ◽  
Peak Height ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Alpha Amylase ◽  
Percentage Body Fat ◽  
Salivary Alpha Amylase

We tested the hypothesis that overweight/obese men aged 50–70 years will have a greater salivary cortisol, salivary alpha amylase and heart rate (HR) responses to psychological stress compared with age matched lean men. Lean (BMI=20–25 kg/m2; n=19) and overweight/obese (BMI=27–35 kg/m2; n=17) men (50–70 years) were subjected to a well-characterised psychological stress (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST) at 1500 h. Concentrations of cortisol and alpha amylase were measured in saliva samples collected every 7–15 min from 1400 to 1700 h. HR was recorded using electrocardiogram. Body weight, BMI, percentage body fat, resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure were significantly higher (P<0.05) in overweight/obese men compared with lean men. Both groups responded to the TSST with a substantial elevation in salivary cortisol (372%), salivary alpha amylase (123%) and HR (22%). These responses did not differ significantly between the groups (time×treatment interaction for salivary cortisol, salivary alpha amylase and HR; P=0.187, P=0.288, P=0.550, respectively). There were no significant differences between the groups for pretreatment values, peak height, difference between pretreatment values and peak height (reactivity) or area under the curve for salivary cortisol, salivary alpha amylase or HR (P>0.05 for all). The results showed that, for men with a moderate level of overweight/obesity who were otherwise healthy, the response of salivary cortisol, salivary alpha amylase and HR to acute psychological stress was not impaired.

scholarly journals Acute Psychosocial Stress Modulates the Detection Sensitivity for Facial Emotions

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette von Dawans ◽  
Ines Spenthof ◽  
Patrick Zimmer ◽  
Gregor Domes
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Social Perception ◽  
Psychosocial Stress ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Detection Sensitivity ◽  
Alpha Amylase ◽  
Facial Emotions ◽  
Free Cortisol

Abstract. Psychosocial stress has been shown to alter social perception and behavior. In the present study, we investigated whether a standardized psychosocial stressor modulates the perceptual sensitivity for positive and negative facial emotions and the tendency to allocate attention to facial expressions. Fifty-four male participants underwent the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G) or a nonstressful control condition before they performed a facial emotions detection task and a facial dot-probe task to assess attention for positive and negative facial expressions. Saliva samples were collected over the course of the experiment to measure free cortisol and alpha amylase. In response to the TSST-G, participants showed marked increases in subjective stress, salivary cortisol, and alpha amylase compared to the control condition. In the control condition, detection performance was higher for angry compared to happy facial expressions, while in the stressful condition this difference was reversed. Here, participants were more sensitive to happy compared to angry facial expressions. Attention was unaffected by psychosocial stress. The results suggest that psychosocial stress shifts social perception in terms of detection sensitivity for facial expressions toward positive social cues, a pattern that is consistent with the tendency to seek social support for coping with stress.

Paranoid Delusions as an Adaptive Response to Social Evaluative Stress?

2018 ◽  
Vol 226 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annika Clamor ◽  
Katarina Krkovic
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Negative Reinforcement ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Social Stressors ◽  
Physiological Homeostasis ◽  
Abstract Learning

Abstract. Learning mechanisms may serve as a framework for understanding the formation of paranoia. Specifically, if paranoid thoughts after social stressors produce a short-term benefit for coping (e.g., downregulating arousal), the encountered negative reinforcement could lead to their excessive application and subsequently to long-term maladaptive convictions. The Trier Social Stress Test was utilized in healthy participants to examine this putative benefit. Participants rated paranoia at baseline and after the stressor. Subjective stress levels, negative affect, heart rate, and heart rate variability were assessed in the following rest phase (N = 59). Semipartial correlations showed that participants who responded with larger increases in paranoia were characterized by a lower heart rate in the subsequent rest phase. No associations were found with heart rate variability or psychological measures. Thus, paranoid thinking in healthy individuals could be an adaptive means for reestablishing some aspects of physiological homeostasis after a social stressor but further research is needed.

scholarly journals Immediate effects of psychosocial stress on attention depend on subjective experience and not directly on stress-related physiological changes

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Palacios-García ◽  
M. Villena-Gonzalez ◽  
G. Campos-Arteaga ◽  
C. Artigas-Vergara ◽  
K. Jaramillo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Salivary Cortisol ◽  
Psychosocial Stress ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Physiological Changes ◽  
Cortisol Levels ◽  
Acute Psychosocial Stress

AbstractAcute psychosocial stress is associated with physiological, subjective and cognitive changes. In particular, attention, which is considered one of the main processes driving cognition, has been related to different stress outcomes, such as anxiety, cortisol levels and autonomic responses, individually. Nonetheless, their specific contributions to and association with attention is still not fully understood. To study this association, 42 male participants were asked to perform an attentional task just before and immediately after being exposed to either an experimental treatment designed to induce psychosocial stress using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) or a matching stress-free control condition. The salivary cortisol concentration, heart rate, and self-reported anxiety were measured to assess the physiological response to stress and the subjective experience during the protocol. As expected, psychosocial stress induced increases in heart rate, salivary cortisol levels and anxiety. The behavioral analysis revealed that members of the control group performed better on the attentional task after the protocol, while members of the TSST group showed no changes. Moreover, after dividing the stress group into sub-groups of participants with high and low anxiety, we observed that participants in the high-anxiety group not only failed to perform better but also performed worse. Finally, after testing several single-level mediation models, we found that anxiety is sufficient to explain the changes in attention and that it mediates the effects between heart rate and cortisol levels on attention. Our results suggest that the immediate effects of acute psychosocial stress on attention are highly dependent on the participant’s subjective experience, which, in turn, is affected and can mediate stress-related physiological changes.

scholarly journals Physiological Resonance in Empathic Stress: Insights from Nonlinear Dynamics of Heart Rate Variability

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 2081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Estelle Blons ◽  
Laurent M. Arsac ◽  
Eric Grivel ◽  
Veronique Lespinet-Najib ◽  
Veronique Deschodt-Arsac
Keyword(s):  
Nonlinear Dynamics ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Stress Responses ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Resonance State ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Resonance Phenomenon ◽  
Multiscale Entropy

Because most humans live and work in populated environments, researchers recently took into account that people may not only experience first-hand stress, but also second-hand stress related to the ability to empathically share another person’s stress response. Recently, researchers have begun to more closely examine the existence of such empathic stress and highlighted the human propensity to physiologically resonate with the stress responses of others. As in case of first-hand stress, empathic stress could be deleterious for health if people experience exacerbated activation of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal and autonomic nervous systems. Thus, exploring empathic stress in an observer watching someone else experiencing stress is critical to gain a better understanding of physiological resonance and conduct strategies for health prevention. In the current study, we investigated the influence of empathic stress responses on heart rate variability (HRV) with a specific focus on nonlinear dynamics. Classic and nonlinear markers of HRV time series were computed in both targets and observers during a modified Trier social stress test (TSST). We capitalized on multiscale entropy, a reliable marker of complexity for depicting neurovisceral interactions (brain-to-heart and heart-to-brain) and their role in physiological resonance. State anxiety and affect were evaluated as well. While classic markers of HRV were not impacted by empathic stress, we showed that the complexity marker reflected the existence of empathic stress in observers. More specifically, a linear model highlighted a physiological resonance phenomenon. We conclude on the relevance of entropy in HRV dynamics, as a marker of complexity in neurovisceral interactions reflecting physiological resonance in empathic stress.

scholarly journals Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase: Is there consistency between psychosocial stress test and burdensome work shifts?

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 1003-1010
Author(s):  
Kati Karhula ◽  
Mikko Härmä ◽  
Mikael Sallinen ◽  
Harri Lindholm ◽  
Ari Hirvonen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Salivary Cortisol ◽  
Psychosocial Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Alpha Amylase ◽  
Work Shifts

Immunoassay or LC-MS/MS for the measurement of salivary cortisol in children?

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoon Ju Bae ◽  
Alexander Gaudl ◽  
Sonia Jaeger ◽  
Stephanie Stadelmann ◽  
Andreas Hiemisch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Salivary Cortisol ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Externalizing Disorders ◽  
Cross Reactivity ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Healthy Children ◽  
Kinetic Assay ◽  
The Difference

AbstractBackground:Dysregulation of the adrenal cortex has been assessed with measurement of salivary cortisol. So far salivary cortisol is routinely measured with immunoassay (IA). However, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (MS) is known to offer better specificity. We compared the concentrations of salivary cortisol measured by MS and IA at basal and stress induced conditions and evaluated reasons for the difference in method-dependent cortisol results.Methods:Saliva samples (n=2703) were collected from 169 children (age range: 8–14 years; 81 healthy children; 55 with internalizing and 33 with externalizing disorders) under circadian conditions and during the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C). Biochemical analyses were performed with MS for cortisol and cortisone, IA (IBL, RE62011) for cortisol, and enzyme kinetic assay for α-amylase.Results:MS and IA showed mostly comparable results for circadian activity and TSST-C response with similar statistical power. However, IA measured cortisol concentrations about 2.39-fold higher than MS. We found that this difference in measured values between MS and IA was mainly due to different standardization of IA compared to MS. In addition, at cortisol IA concentration below 5 nmol/L, cross-reactivity with cortisone was found to contribute to the lower concordance between MS and IA.Conclusions:Immunoassay and LC-MS/MS were largely comparable in the interpretation of salivary cortisol dynamics in stress research. But the IA method revealed a restricted accuracy in the measuring range below 5 nmol/L.

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