The Diurnal Rhythm of Adrenaline Secretion in Subjects with Different Working Habits

Abstract

P~T K A I , P. T h e diurnal rhythm of adrenaline secretion in subjects with different working habits. Acta physiol. scand. 1971. 81. 30-34. Subjects classified as habitual morning us. evening workers on the basis of their answers to a questionnaire, were compared with regard to catecholamine excretion under conditions of relaxation in the morning and in the evening. I t was shown that individuals who preferred to work in the evening, excreted more adrenaline in the evening than in the morning, while individuals characterized by morning alertness excreted more adrenaline in the morning than in the evening, also when relaxing. With regard to noradrenaline excretion there was no marked difference between the groups.The present investigation forms part of a larger project concerned with the relationship between catecholamine excretion and psychological functions. (Among the reviews in this field may be mentioned those of Euler 1967 andFrankenhaeuser 1970). Earlier experiments (e.g. PBtkai et al. 1967, Frankenhaeuser et al. 1968, Frankenhaeuser and Rissler 1970 have shown a positive correlation between catecholamine levels, especially adrenaline level as measured by urinary excretion, and performance. These results were interpreted in the light of the hypothetical inverted-U function relating behavioural efficiency to arousal level. According to this hypothesis efficiency increases as arousal increases to a medium level, and then declines as arousal rises still further. I t was assumed that adrenaline excretion would serve as an indicator of arousal level. Thus, performance would be positively related to low to moderate adrenaline levels.Additional information concerning the part played by adrenaline in the regulation of arousal, was obtained in a study by Levi (1966), where the subjects were exposed to a 72 hr vigil under conditions which simulated combat. He found that adrenaline excretion, measured at three-hourly intervals, showed a regular sinusshaped diurnal variation. The lowest excretion values were obtained just after midnight, coinciding with periods of maximum subjective fatigue and poorest performance. 30

Stress and changing lifestyles in the Pacific: Physiological stress responses of Samoans in rural and urban settings

“…Although it has been known that catecholamines vary diurnally (Patkai, 1971), and over periods ranging from minutes (Dimsdale and Ziegler, 19911 to hours (Euler, 1967), a number of studies of catecholamine excretion in free-ranging human subjects have attempted to correlate an individual's catecholamine excretion rate with psychosocial traits such as worker satisfaction, social support, and coronary prone behavior Harrison et al, 1981;James et al, 1987;Hanna et al, 19861, as well as with stressful event inventories covering periods of weeks or months (Pollack and Steklis, 1986). However, if catecholamine excretion behaves like a state variable and varies widely over time, then this temporal variability will make if difficult to detect significant correlations with trait variables (Liu et al, 1978).…”

Latitude and Social Habits as Determinants of the Distribution of Morning and Evening Types in Brazil

“…Since the original report of Kleitman, the human rhythmic pattern was theme of a extensive work trying to understand this typology which resulted in the development of self-assessment instruments for evaluation (Patkai, 1971;Horne & Östberg, 1976;Torsvall & Äkerstedt, 1980). Commonly morning (M-) and evening (E-) types are regarded as two extremes of a continuum on which intermediate (I-) types represent the largest category (Kerkhof, 1985a).…”