Contact: Xue He
Phone: 916-972-8063
Email: Xue_He@brown.edu
Embargoed until: March 16, 2002

BARCELONA, SPAIN-- To hear about stress, just ask a medical student. To hear about background stress and levels of the hormone, cortisol, in medical students, ask Brown University undergraduate, Xue He, about her recent research presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society.

In collaboration with Laura Stroud, Ph.D. and Raymond Niaura, Ph.D., at the Brown University Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, Ms. He examined the relationship between background stress levels and the stress hormone, cortisol. In general, when individuals are challenged (for example, during examinations or public speaking), levels of cortisol rise. However, conditions of high background or chronic stress may change how individuals respond to the challenge.

As part of the larger study of stress, coping, hormones, and lipids in a group of 156 medical students headed by Niaura, plasma cortisol levels and background stress levels were measured at four time points throughout a school year, including two "rest" periods without exams, and two exam periods. To measure background stress, subjects indicated the number of recent stressful events they had encountered, as well as their perceived levels of control over daily activities.

Ms. He divided subjects into high and low background stress groups based on the number of stressful events and their levels of perceived control. She found that medical students high in stressful life events showed greater cortisol levels during the rest periods. Medical students low in perceived control over daily activities showed higher cortisol levels during one of the exam periods.

Said He, "Our results suggest that high background stress may lead to changes in stress hormone levels when students are undergoing challenge, but also when they are in more relaxed periods. Increases in stress hormones during relaxed and stressful periods may introduce a greater burden on the body. This may help to explain why chronically stressed individuals are more prone to both mental and physical illness."

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