Endocrine and cardiovascular responses during phobic anxiety.

Abstract

In vivo exposure therapy for phobias is uniquely suited for controlled studies of endocrine and physiologic responses during psychologic stress. In this study, exposure therapy induced significant increases in subjective anxiety, pulse, blood pressure, plasma norepinephrine, epinephrine, insulin, cortisol, and growth hormone, but did not change plasma glucagon or pancreatic polypeptide. Although the subjective and behavioral manifestations of anxiety were consistent and intense, the magnitude, consistency, timing, and concordance of endocrine and cardiovascular responses showed considerable variation.

Physiological and Biochemical Measures of Stress Compared to Voice Stress Analysis Using the Computer Voice Stress Analyzer (CVSA)

“…In studies of patients with phobic symptoms, exposure to phobic stimuli increased anxiety, HR, BP, CS (Nesse, Curtis, thyer, McCann, Huber-Smith, & Knopf, 1985) and urinary excretion of CS (Fredrickson, Sundin, & Frankenhaeuser, 1985). Whereas the biomedical measures in our study were related to stress levels, this was not true for the voice stress measures.…”

B‐type natriuretic peptide measurement in heart failure

“…[18][19][20][21][22] Because BNP levels are stable both in vivo and in drawn blood tubes, levels can be measured accurately with fewer logistical problems than other biochemical markers of CHF, such as norepinephrine or plasma renin activity. [23][24][25][26][27] B-type natriuretic peptide is synthesized in the myocardium as a pro-hormone, pro-BNP. 28 Cleavage of pro-BNP to the active hormone occurs in the blood, releasing an inactive byproduct, N-terminal BNP (N-BNP).…”

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews

“…For humans, even some extreme situations are not associated with any cortisol response [44]. The current best method for arousing stress responses requires asking subjects to participate in a sequence of embarrassing and socially awkward scenarios [45].…”