Effects of Practical Examination Stress on Serum ACTH and Cortisol Concentrations in Normal and Anxious Students

In the majority of human psychoneuroendocrinological and -immunological research, psychosocial stress has been operationalized using experimental and natural situations deemed to be stressful, e.g., parachute jumping, mental arithmetic, fake job interviews, performance tasks, loud noise or academic exams. Whether anxious students respond like normal students in stressful situations? To determine the difference between their responses, students were divided into two groups (n = 36) as normal and anxious by their state-anxiety scores of anxiety standard questionnaire. Blood sampling was carried out in none-stressful period and 20 min before practical examination between 8-9 am. Serum ACTH and cortisol concentrations were measured by RIA. The results showed that stress of examination increased level of ACTH and cortisol in both groups significantly. The ACTH and cortisol concentrations did not differ between normal and anxious students in both situations. Therefore, stress examination can increase stress hormones in stressful situations, but scores of anxiety standard questionnaire is not useful for determination of subject=s anxious behavior.