University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry, United States.
Seattle Pacific University, United States.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2014 Jun;44:60-70. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.02.016. Epub 2014 Mar 3.
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a critical mediator linking stress to health. Understanding how to modulate its reactivity could potentially help reduce the detrimental health effects of HPA axis activation. Social evaluative threat is a potent activator of this system. Access to control and coping responses can reduce its reactivity to pharmacological activation. Compassionate or affiliative behaviors may also moderate stress reactivity. Impact of these moderators on social evaluative threat is unknown. Here, we tested the hypotheses that interventions to increase control, coping, or compassionate (versus competitive) goals could reduce HPA-axis response to social evaluative threat.
Healthy participants (n=54) were exposed to social evaluative threat using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). They were randomly assigned to receive one of four different instructions prior to the stressor: Standard TSST instructions (SI), standard instructions with access to "control" (SI Control), or one of two cognitive interventions (CI) that (1) increased familiarity and helped participants prepare coping strategies (CI Coping), or (2) shifted goal orientation from self-promotion to helping others (CI Compassionate Goals). ACTH and cortisol were obtained before and after stress exposure via intravenous catheter.
Control alone had no effect. CI Compassionate Goals significantly reduced ACTH and cortisol responses to the TSST; CI Coping raised baseline levels. Compassionate Goals reduced hormonal responses without reducing subjective anxiety, stress or fear, while increasing expression of pro-social intentions and focus on helping others.
Brief intervention to shift focus from competitive self-promotion to a goal orientation of helping-others can reduce HPA-axis activation to a potent psychosocial stressor. This supports the potential for developing brief interventions as inoculation tools to reduce the impact of predictable stressors and lends support to growing evidence that compassion and altruistic goals can moderate the effects of stress.
下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴是连接压力与健康的关键介质。了解如何调节其反应性可能有助于减轻 HPA 轴激活对健康的不利影响。社会评价威胁是该系统的强大激活剂。获得控制和应对反应可以降低其对药理学激活的反应性。同情或亲和行为也可能调节应激反应。这些调节剂对社会评价威胁的影响尚不清楚。在这里，我们测试了以下假设：增加控制、应对或同情（而不是竞争）目标的干预措施可以降低社会评价威胁对 HPA 轴的反应。
健康参与者（n=54）通过 Trier 社会应激测试（TSST）暴露于社会评价威胁之下。他们在应激源之前被随机分配接受以下四种不同指令之一：标准 TSST 指令（SI）、标准指令加“控制”（SI 控制）或两种认知干预之一（CI）：（1）增加熟悉度并帮助参与者制定应对策略（CI 应对），或（2）将目标导向从自我提升转变为帮助他人（CI 同情目标）。通过静脉内导管在应激暴露前后获得 ACTH 和皮质醇。
单独控制没有效果。CI 同情目标显著降低了 TSST 对 ACTH 和皮质醇的反应；CI 应对提高了基线水平。同情目标降低了激素反应，而不会降低主观焦虑、压力或恐惧，同时增加了亲社会意图的表达和对帮助他人的关注。
简短的干预措施可以将重点从竞争的自我提升转变为帮助他人的目标取向，从而降低对强烈心理社会压力源的 HPA 轴激活。这支持了开发简短干预措施作为预防工具的潜力，以减轻可预测压力源的影响，并支持越来越多的证据表明同情和利他主义目标可以调节压力的影响。
