Sex Differences in Endocrine and Psychological Responses to Psychosocial Stress in Healthy Elderly Subjects and the Impact of a 2-Week Dehydroepiandrosterone Treatment

1998 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 1756-1761 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. M. Kudielka
1998 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 1756-1761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte M. Kudielka ◽  
Juliane Hellhammer ◽  
Dirk H. Hellhammer ◽  
Oliver T. Wolf ◽  
Karl-Martin Pirke ◽  
...  

Evidence from animal as well as human studies has suggested that significant sex differences exist in hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) activity. As gonadal steroids could be important modulators of HPA sex differences, stress responses were investigated in subjects of advanced age after dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) or placebo treatment. After a 2-week treatment with 50 mg DHEA daily or placebo, 75 men and women (mean age, 67.6 yr) were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). The TSST is a brief psychosocial stress that consists of a free speech and mental arithmetic task in front of an audience. The results show that the TSST induced significant increases in ACTH, salivary free cortisol, total plasma cortisol, norepinephrine, and heart rates (all P < 0.0001) as well as decreased positive affect in the elderly (P = 0.0009). Men showed larger stress responses in ACTH (P = 0.004), salivary free cortisol (P = 0.044), and plasma total cortisol (P = 0.076) compared to women. No sex differences were observed in norepinephrine, epinephrine, or heart rate responses. In contrast to ACTH and cortisol response differences, women reported that they were significantly more stressed by the TSST than men (P = 0.0051). Women treated with DHEA showed ACTH stress responses similar to those of men, but significantly enhanced compared to those of women taking placebos (P < 0.009). No other stress response differences emerged between DHEA and placebo groups. Finally, DHEA treatment did not result in an improvement of subjective well-being. We conclude that elderly men show larger HPA responses than women to psychosocial stress, as studied in the TSST. Estrogen effects on hypothalamic CRF-producing neurons might be responsible for these sex differences.


2016 ◽  
Vol 127 (11) ◽  
pp. 3406-3411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthieu Casteran ◽  
Alain Putot ◽  
François Pfitzenmeyer ◽  
Elizabeth Thomas ◽  
Patrick Manckoundia

Author(s):  
Sylwia Dzięgielewska-Gęsiak ◽  
Lena Bielawska ◽  
Miłosława Zowczak-Drabarczyk ◽  
Karolina Hoffmann ◽  
Maciej Cymerys ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Roxane Langlois ◽  
Francine Fontaine ◽  
Caroline Hamel ◽  
Sven Joubert

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to investigate the impact of aging on the ability a) to name famous faces and b) to access biographical knowledge about famous people from different modalities of presentation (faces and names). Healthy elderly subjects (n = 117) divided into three different age groups were assessed using a semantic memory test of famous people. Results of this study indicate a decline in naming performance between oldest and youngest groups. In contrast, no difference between groups was found in terms of the ability to access semantic knowledge about famous people. Finally, a main effect of modality of presentation (faces vs. names) was found, revealing greater ability to identify famous people in the verbal (names) than in the visual modality (faces). Taken together, results of this study may contribute to developing new cognitive intervention programs in older adults presenting with proper-name anomia.


Diabetes ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Robert ◽  
J. C. Cummins ◽  
R. R. Wolfe ◽  
M. Durkot ◽  
D. E. Matthews ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Fusi ◽  
Elena Ferrari ◽  
Marina Zanetti ◽  
Maura Crepaldi ◽  
Carol Bersanini ◽  
...  

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