DIFFERENT STRESS RESPONSES TO MENTAL AND PHYSICAL STRESSORS IN HEALTHY-VOLUNTEERS

To evaluate the proportion of individual‐ (ISR) and stimulus‐specific response stereotypy (SSR), 63 healthy volunteers were exposed to different structured situations: (1) cold pressor test (CP); (2) noise; (3) mental arithmetic task (MA); (4) active relaxation (AR). Physiological parameters were quantified on‐line in 10‐sec periods. Norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (E) were measured during rest and 2 min after the onset of each task. Subjective evaluation showed that CP, MA and noise were rated as similarly unpleasant. CP induced vasoconstriction, paralleled by an increase in NE and E secretion. Noise induced only a non‐specific increase in electrodermal activity. In contrast, MA led to a highly significant increase in heart rate and pulse wave velocity. Estimation of the variance components showed that the concepts of ISR and SSR coexist. Thus, our data show that the distinction between non‐specific and specific stress response is arbitrary and that ISR as well as SSR stereotypy plays an important role in autonomous responses to stressful stimuli. Copyright © 1990 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd