The findings suggest that psychoendocrine stress responses are more closely coupled than previous studies suggested. Due to different dynamics of the systems, endocrine responses lag behind psychological responses.

Objective-To examine the association in humans between maternal psychosocial stress exposure during pregnancy and measures of glucose-insulin metabolism in the adult offspring.Study Design-Healthy young adults whose mothers experienced major stressful life events during their pregnancy (n=36, Prenatal Stress, PS group, mean age 25 ± 5.14 (SD) years) and a comparison group (n=22, CG, mean age 24 ± 3.7 (SD) years) underwent an oral glucose tolerance test.Results-Glucose levels were not significantly different across the groups, however, prenatallystressed subjects showed significantly elevated 2h insulin (p=.01) and C-peptide levels (p=.03). These differences were independent of other major risk factors for insulin resistance, including birth phenotype (birth weight, length of gestation), family history of diabetes, gestational diabetes, body mass index, pro-inflammatory state, and smoking.Conclusions-Higher insulin responses reflect relative insulin resistance in these prenatallystressed young adults. This study is the first to provide evidence for a link in humans between prenatal psychosocial stress exposure and alterations in glucose-insulin metabolic function.

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