Suppressing the endocrine and autonomic stress systems does not impact the emotional stress experience after psychosocial stress

Abstract

Acute psychosocial stress activates the physiological and endocrine stress systems and increases the subjective emotional experience of stress. While considerable efforts have been made to link changes in the activity of the biological stress systems with changes in the subjective emotional experience of stress, results so far have been mixed, at best. To investigate this association in a study employing experimental manipulation, we pharmacologically suppressed both the autonomic and the endocrine stress responses, and investigated the effects of acute psychosocial stress on the emotional stress experience. 22 healthy men and women received dexamethasone (2 mg) the day before, and propranolol (80 mg) one hour before psychosocial stress induction. A control group (n = 24) received placebo pills on each occasion. Salivary cortisol, alpha-amylase and heart-rate responses to stress were assessed before, during and after stress induction. Subjective stress, mood, and state self-esteem assessments were made before and after stress. In the pharmacological manipulation group, subjects demonstrated no increase in autonomic or endocrine stress response, after exposure to psychosocial stress. Despite these effects, the emotional stress experience was intact in this group and identical to the control group. Participants in the experimental group showed an increase in subjective stress, greater mood dysregulation, and lower state self-esteem following stress exposure, with the response magnitude comparable to the control group. Our findings suggest that at least acutely, the physiological stress arousal systems and the emotional experience of stress are dissociated. This raises important questions about the efficacy of our measurement of subjective stress, and the unique contributions of the autonomic and endocrine responses in the subjective stress experience.

Positive memory specificity is associated with reduced vulnerability to depression

“…. This dissociation is in accordance with recent research findings, where pharmacological blockade of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis stress response had no influence on subjective mood and self-esteem responses to stress44 . Thus, while recent theory suggests that negative biases and cortisol may be interlinked in depression27 , we find a dissociation of cognitive and physiological vulnerability to depression in this study.…”

Positive memory specificity reduces adolescent vulnerability to depression

“…Furthermore, this physiological pathway to depressive vulnerability appeared to be relatively distinct from our measure of cognitive vulnerability, which was unrelated to cortisol in the path model (see Figure 1). This dissociation is in accordance with recent research findings, where pharmacological blockade of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis stress response had no influence on subjective mood and self-esteem responses to stress 44 . Thus, while recent theory suggests that negative biases and cortisol may be interlinked in depression 28 , we find a dissociation of cognitive and physiological vulnerability to depression in this study.…”

β-Adrenergic Contributions to Emotion and Physiology During an Acute Psychosocial Stressor

“…Although consistent with some prior work wherein propranolol blunted anxiety (27,31,38,42,43,46,48,50), the present findings contrast with several studies that did not find blunting of subjective stress (25,26,36,37,40,41,44,45,47,80). These inconsistencies in prior work may be due in part to small sample sizes and narrow measures of subjective stress-issues we sought to address herein.…”