Neuroendocrine Activation during Combined Mental and Physical Stress in Women Depends on Trait Anxiety and the Phase of the Menstrual Cycle

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of trait anxiety and menstrual cycle phase on neuroendocrine activation during combined mental and physical stress procedure in 40 healthy female subjects. Women at the upper (anxious) and lower (nonanxious) limits of the normal range of a trait anxiety scale were exposed to the stress procedure consisting of a mental component (Stroop test) and handgrip exercise. Salivary cortisol levels, cardiovascular parameters, and cognitive performance in the Stroop test were evaluated. Stress-induced cortisol levels and the rise in systolic blood pressure were affected by both trait anxiety and menstrual cycle phase. The stress model used induced a significant cortisol elevation only in anxious women in the follicular phase. This group of women also exhibited greater increases in systolic blood pressure in response to handgrip exercise as compared to anxious ones in the luteal phase and to nonanxious women in either phase. In nonanxious women, stress-induced cortisol levels positively correlated with cognitive performance. In contrast, a negative correlation trend was observed in anxious subjects. Thus, in subjects with low but not high trait anxiety, enhanced cortisol concentrations seem to be associated with better cognitive performance. The results suggest that women with high trait anxiety exhibit greater cardiovascular and hormonal sensitivity to stress stimuli during the follicular phase.

Psychological and Neuroendocrine Reactivity to Ostracism

“…More studies are available to compare the current sample size with studies that have examined how cortisol reactivity to agentic stressors is related to sex and hormonal factors. The number of participants in this study is in line with the sample sizes observed in other agentic stressor studies examining the effects of oral contraceptive users vs. nonusers [ N = 57; Kirschbaum et al, ], follicular vs. luteal cycle phase [ N = 78 free cycling women in Lustyk et al, and N = 40 women in Hlavacova et al, ], and sex with combined hormone status [ N = 81 total males and females in the follicular phase, luteal phase, taking oral contraceptives; Kirschbaum, et al, and N = 80 total males and females in the follicular and luteal phase; Childs et al, ]. Ideally, future studies examining the effect of rejection on cortisol reactivity will incorporate large sample sizes that enable the systematic comparison of males as well as free cycling females in the luteal and follicular phases, and female oral contraceptive users.…”

Cardiovascular, hormonal, and emotional responses to the TSST in relation to sex and menstrual cycle phase

“…Comparing stress responses in men and women is complicated by variations related to menstrual cycle. Several studies have investigated responses to cognitive and stressful challenges during different phases of the menstrual cycle (Polefrone & Manuck, 1988; Stoney, Owens, Matthews, Davis, & Caggiula, 1990; Weidner & Helmig, 1990; Tersman, Collins, & Eneroth, 1991; Sita & Miller, 1996; Litschauer et al, 1998; Sato & Miyake, 2004; Carter& Lawrence, 2007; Hlavacova, Wawruch, Isonova, & Jezova, 2008), although only a few have employed the TSST or a similar speech task (Kirschbaum et al, 1995a; Kirschbaum et al, 1999; Pico‐Alfonso et al, 2007). In general, these studies suggest that cardiovascular, subjective, and cortisol responses to stress do not vary across the menstrual cycle (Kirschbaum et al, 1995a; Kirschbaum et al, 1999; Pico‐Alfonso et al, 2007), except for one study which found greater salivary cortisol responses to stress during the luteal phase (Kirschbaum et al, 1999).…”

Increased Anxiety Induced by Listening to Unpleasant Music during Stress Exposure Is Associated with Reduced Blood Pressure and ACTH Responses in Healthy Men

“…Another limitation is that we did not measure hormone levels without any manipulation in the same subjects at the same time of the day. However, according to our previous data as well as other studies, stress hormone concentrations are relatively stable during the early afternoon [13,30,31], and the reproducibility of the mental and physical stress test is good [18,23,32]. …”

“…This is not surprising as cortisol release does not exhibit changes in response to many model situations with mental challenge [16,17,18,19,20,21]. Similarly, the short handgrip exercise used [22] or combination of handgrip exercise with mental work [18,23] does not induce a profound rise in cortisol release. Cortisol is the endocrine parameter that is most frequently linked to emotional states and coping with stress [24,25].…”