Department of Cognitive Psychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2011 Apr;80(1):36-43. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2011.01.008. Epub 2011 Jan 21.
It is well documented that acute stress activates the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. Results regarding the hypothalamus pituitary gonadal (HPG) axis, in contrast, are less consistent. Stress-associated increases as well as decreases have been reported for testosterone and estradiol. In the present study, healthy young male (n=39) and female participants (n=44, all tested in the luteal phase) were randomly assigned to a well-evaluated psychosocial stress protocol ("Trier Social Stress Test", TSST) or to a non-stressful control condition ("Placebo-TSST"). Salivary concentrations of cortisol, alpha-amylase, testosterone, progesterone, and estradiol were measured immediately before and twice (10 and 25 min) after the treatment. As was to be expected, cortisol- and sAA-concentrations increased in response to the stressor. Stressed men showed a more pronounced increase of cortisol than stressed women. In contrast, acute stress did not affect testosterone-, progesterone-, and estradiol-concentrations. The results of the present study suggest that an acute psychosocial laboratory stress or has no strong rapid effects on salivary gonadal steroids. In line with several previous studies the findings might suggest that stress-induced changes in gonadal steroids occur in response to physical stressors, to competitive stressors or to more severe stressors only.
有大量文献记载表明，急性压力会激活交感神经系统（SNS）和下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴。相比之下，关于下丘脑-垂体-性腺（HPG）轴的结果则不太一致。有研究报道称，睾酮和雌二醇的水平会因压力而增加或减少。在本研究中，健康的年轻男性（n=39）和女性参与者（n=44，均在黄体期进行测试）被随机分配到经过充分评估的心理社会应激方案（“特里尔社会应激测试”，TSST）或非应激对照条件（“安慰剂-TSST”）中。在治疗前和治疗后 10 分钟和 25 分钟两次测量唾液中的皮质醇、α-淀粉酶、睾酮、孕酮和雌二醇浓度。正如预期的那样，皮质醇和 sAA 浓度随着应激源的增加而增加。与女性相比，受到压力的男性的皮质醇水平升高更为明显。相比之下，急性应激不会影响睾酮、孕酮和雌二醇的浓度。本研究的结果表明，急性心理社会实验室应激源对唾液性腺类固醇没有强烈的快速影响。与之前的几项研究结果一致，这些发现可能表明，性腺类固醇的应激诱导变化是对身体应激源、竞争应激源或更严重的应激源的反应。
