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 exposu

SUBMITTER: Grillon C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2093988 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature