scholarly journals A Triple-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Randomized Trial of the Effect of Bilateral Alternating Somatosensory Stimulation on Reducing Stress-Related Cortisol and Anxiety During and After the Trier Social Stress Test

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-30
Author(s):  
Ernesto Cesar Pinto Leal-Junior ◽  
Heliodora Leão Casalechi ◽  
Caroline dos Santos Monteiro Machado ◽  
Amy Serin ◽  
Nathan S. Hageman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Group ◽  
Emotional Stress ◽  
Salivary Cortisol ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Subjective Rating ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Somatosensory Stimulation ◽  
Cortisol Levels

The aim of this clinical study was to determine the efficacy of bilateral alternating somatosensory stimulation for the management of stress and anxiety during and after the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), a laboratory procedure for reliably inducing stress in human subjects. For this, a randomized, placebo-controlled, triple-blinded clinical trial of 80 qualified subjects was conducted. Subjects were randomized into two groups, a treatment group (n=40) and a control (placebo) group (n=40). Metrics of emotional stress assessed were a subjective rating of the level of emotional stress and salivary cortisol levels, both obtained at 3 timepoints: before treatment (baseline), immediately following completion of the TSST, and after 20 minutes of rest following completion of the TSST. Results showed that the treatment group had a statistically greater decrease in the subjective rating of stress relative to the control group both immediately following the TSST and 20 minutes after the TSST. Salivary cortisol levels in the treatment group were also lower than the control group at those same time points. These results suggest that bilateral alternating somatosensory stimulation may be effective in reducing subjective levels of stress and anxiety. It also may actively attenuate stress-related cortisol levels, which may reflect a mechanism for reducing cortisol-induced inflammation back to baseline after exposure to stressful situations.

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.

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.

scholarly journals Childhood Adversities and Salivary Cortisol Responses to the Trier Social Stress Test: A Systematic Review of Studies Using the Children Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ)

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Chuk Ling Julian Lai ◽  
Daryl Yu Heng Lee ◽  
Monique On Yee Leung
Keyword(s):  
Salivary Cortisol ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cortisol Response ◽  
Childhood Adversities ◽  
Social Stressors ◽  
Childhood Trauma Questionnaire ◽  
Cortisol Responses

Alteration in cortisol response to acute social stressors has been hypothesized to mediate childhood adversities (CA) and increased morbidity in adulthood. However, the evidence supporting an association between CA and cortisol response to social stressors is inconclusive. The present review addressed this issue by reviewing the literature on CA and cortisol response to acute social stressors, with a focus on studies with adolescents or adults, using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) to assess CA, and examining salivary cortisol response to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Systematic searches of relevant articles in PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science and ScienceDirect in February and March 2020 identified 12 articles including 1196 participants with mean ages ranging from 15.3 to 52.3 yrs. across studies. CTQ scores were significantly associated with cortisol response in 2 studies. In addition, the physical abuse and emotional neglect subscales were associated with cortisol response respectively in 2 separate studies. The lack of association between CA and cortisol response calls for more longitudinal studies, and the use of formal records of maltreatment or informant reports in future research to complement information collected by retrospective measures. In addition, increased attention to biological mechanisms other than that associated with the regulation of cortisol in explaining the connection between CA and psychiatry morbidity is warranted.

scholarly journals Impact of Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) on Salivary Cortisol Secretion

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan YANG ◽  
Yan HOU ◽  
Yu YANG ◽  
Qing-Lin ZHANG
Keyword(s):  
Salivary Cortisol ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Cortisol Secretion

scholarly journals Kinetics and Interrelations of the Renin Aldosterone Response to Acute Psychosocial Stress: A Neglected Stress System

2019 ◽  
Vol 105 (3) ◽  
pp. e762-e773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelina Gideon ◽  
Christine Sauter ◽  
Judy Fieres ◽  
Thilo Berger ◽  
Britta Renner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychosocial Stress ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Plasma Aldosterone ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Placebo Control ◽  
Stress System ◽  
Stress Induction ◽  
Acute Psychosocial Stress

Abstract Context The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) plays an important role in cardiovascular homeostasis and its dysfunction relates to negative health consequences. Acute psychosocial stress seems to activate the RAAS in humans, but stress kinetics and interrelations of RAAS parameters compared with a nonstress control group remain inconclusive. Objective We systematically investigated in a randomized placebo-controlled design stress kinetics and interrelations of the reactivity of RAAS parameters measured in plasma and saliva to standardized acute psychosocial stress induction. Methods 58 healthy young men were assigned to either a stress or a placebo control group. The stress group underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), while the control group underwent the placebo TSST. We repeatedly assessed plasma renin, and plasma and salivary aldosterone before and up to 3 hours after stress/placebo. We simultaneously assessed salivary cortisol to validate successful stress induction and to test for interrelations. Results Acute psychosocial stress induced significant increases in all endocrine measures compared with placebo-stress (all P ≤ .041). Highest renin levels were observed 1 minute after stress, and highest aldosterone and cortisol levels 10 and 20 minutes after stress, with salivary aldosterone starting earlier at 1 minute after stress. Renin completed recovery at 10 minutes, cortisol at 60 minutes, salivary aldosterone at 90 minutes, and plasma aldosterone at 180 minutes after stress. Stress increase scores of all endocrine measures related to each other, as did renin and cortisol areas under the curve with respect to increase (AUCi) and salivary and plasma aldosterone AUCi (all P ≤ .047). Conclusions Our findings suggest that in humans acute psychosocial stress induces a differential and interrelated RAAS parameter activation pattern. Potential implications for stress-related cardiovascular risk remain to be elucidated.

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 Using Speech to Predict Sequentially Measured Cortisol Levels During a Trier Social Stress Test

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Baird ◽  
Shahin Amiriparian ◽  
Nicholas Cummins ◽  
Sarah Sturmbauer ◽  
Johanna Janson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Cortisol Levels

scholarly journals How Stress Affects Performance and Competitiveness Across Gender

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 3295-3310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Cahlíková ◽  
Lubomír Cingl ◽  
Ian Levely
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Piece Rate ◽  
Incentive Structures ◽  
Salivary Cortisol Level ◽  
Willingness To Compete

Because many key career events, such as examinations and interviews, involve competition and stress, gender differences in response to these factors could help to explain the labor market gender gap. In a laboratory experiment, we manipulate psychosocial stress using the Trier Social Stress Test and confirm that this is effective by measuring salivary cortisol level and heart rate. Subjects perform in a real-effort task under both tournament and piece-rate incentives, and we elicit willingness to compete. We find that women under heightened stress perform worse than women in the control group when compensated with tournament incentives, whereas there is no treatment difference under piece-rate incentives. For men, stress does not affect output under competition or under piece rate. The gender gap in willingness to compete is not affected by stress, but stress decreases competitiveness overall, which is related to performance for women. Our results could explain gender differences in performance under competition, with implications for hiring practices and incentive structures in firms. This paper was accepted by Axel Ockenfels, behavioral economics.

The Forward Testing Effect is Immune to Acute Psychosocial Encoding/Retrieval Stress

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-122
Author(s):  
Bernhard Pastötter ◽  
Bernadette von Dawans ◽  
Gregor Domes ◽  
Christian Frings
Keyword(s):  
Social Stress ◽  
Testing Effect ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Other Information ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Testing Condition

Abstract. The forward testing effect (FTE) refers to the finding that testing of previously studied information enhances memory for subsequently studied other information. Previous research demonstrated that the FTE is a robust phenomenon that generalizes across different materials and populations. The present study examined whether the FTE is robust under acute psychosocial encoding/retrieval stress. In each of two experimental conditions, participants studied three item lists in anticipation of final cumulative recall testing. In the testing condition, participants were tested immediately on lists 1 and 2, whereas in the restudy condition, they restudied lists 1 and 2. In both conditions, participants were tested immediately on list 3. Acute psychosocial stress was induced in participants prior to the encoding of item lists using the Trier social stress test for groups protocol. No stress was induced in a control group. Salivary cortisol, alpha amylase, and subjective stress were measured repeatedly to capture the biopsychological stress response. The results showed a significant FTE on list 3 recall, that is, testing of lists 1 and 2 enhanced the recall of list 3. No significant effect of stress on the FTE was observed, suggesting that the FTE is robust under acute psychosocial encoding/retrieval stress. The discussion provides suggestions for future research directions.

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