The assessment of the emotional and immunological consequences of examination stress.

Sixteen final-year students and 14 nonstudents were recruited into a pilot study exploring the utility of the Merieux Multitest CMI in identifying stress-related immune impairment. The results of the investigation revealed that the examination group reported greater stress than the nonexamination group. The relationship between stress and immune impairment was explored using two widely held definitions of stress (i.e., stimulus and response). When stress was defined as the stimulus (i.e., examination versus nonexamination groups), reactions to the skin test were not significantly different. However, when stress was defined as the response (i.e., high stress versus low stress scores), the high-stress individuals were found to have poorer reactions to the skin test than the low-stress subjects. The results of the study highlight the need for greater precision in the definition of the term stress and, also, suggest that Multitest CMI can provide a rapid and reproducible means of assessing stress-related immune dysfunction.