Neuroendocrine responses to experimentally-induced psychological stress in healthy humans

Mood and autonomic responses to repeated exposure to the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G)

“…During the second exposure to the TSST-G, a significant increase in HR was detected. Previous studies about the repeated application of the TSST in single settings showed, similarly, no habituation with regard to the HR response (Gerra et al, 2001;von Känel et al, 2006;Jönsson et al, 2010) or a minimal decrease over time (Schommer et al, 2003). In the present study, the repeated application showed no (TSST-G-2 nd -defence) or a slight (TSST-G-2 nd -presentation) habituation with regard to HR.…”

“…Repeated exposure to the TSST has produced different changes in various physiological stress systems. The cortisol response usually habituates to repeated exposure to minimally changed stress tasks (Kirschbaum et al, 1995;Schommer et al, 2003;Wüst et al, 2005;Kudielka et al, 2006), whereas the stress response of sAA (Gerra et al, 2001;Schommer et al, 2003;, HR (Gerra et al, 2001;Schommer et al, 2003;von Känel et al, 2006;Jönsson et al, 2010) and HRV (Petrowski et al, 2012) show very little habituation to repeated stress exposure.…”

“…The HPA and ANS are two different strategies of the organisms to deal with stress (Gerra et al, 2001). The group version of the TSST -involving a larger social-evaluative threatcould help ensure that subjects habituate less with regard to the HPA than in the single version.…”

Effect of Ethanol on Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal System Response to Psychosocial Stress in Sons of Alcohol-Dependent Fathers

“…A significant interaction between alcohol effect and administration sequence influenced both ACTH and cortisol secretion. This is most probably due to a repetition effect resulting in habituation, since in prior studies HPA response was diminished during the second test in the majority of sober subjects when the TSST was repeated after 1 week (Kirschbaum et al, 1995;Gerra et al, 2001). Therefore, alcohol administered during the second test acted synergistically with the habituation effect, resulting in more effective dampening of the HPA response than if alcohol was administered during the first test.…”

“…To test these hypotheses, we investigated all subjects twice, with alcohol and placebo administration on alternate days. Doing so, we had to respect that repetitive exposure to the TSST in the same subjects can result in lower stress response during the second test (Gerra et al, 2001;Kirschbaum et al, 1995). This issue was accounted for in two ways: as a first step, we analyzed only data from the respective first test days, that is, when subjects were testnaive, thereby excluding a test repetition effect.…”