Search is Powered by Google
Follow us on:
Follow our health news on Twitter
Follow Our News on Facebook
Personalization
login | register
Anxiety / Stress News

Hormone Levels Contribute To Stress Resilience

Main Category: Anxiety / Stress
Also Included In: Endocrinology;  Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 06 Aug 2009 - 4:00 PDT

email icon email to a friend   printer icon printer friendly   write icon view / write opinions
Current Article Ratings:

Patient / Public:4 and a half stars

4.4 (5 votes)

Health Professional:5 stars

5 (1 votes)

Article Opinions: 0 posts

It is important to understand what biological mechanisms contribute to an individual's capacity to be resilient under conditions of extreme stress, such as those regularly experienced by soldiers, police, and firefighters. Dr. Charles A. Morgan III and his colleagues from Yale University and the VA National Center for PTSD have worked closely with collaborators at the Special Forces Underwater Warfare Operations Center to study special operations soldiers enrolled in the military Combat Diver Qualification Course (CDQC).

Dehydroepiandrosterone, or "DHEA" as it is commonly known, is a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal gland in response to stress. Although medical scientists have known for over a decade that DHEA provides beneficial, anti-stress effects in animals, they did not know until now whether this was also true for humans.

The scientists completed psychological and hormone assessments on a group of soldiers the day before they began the month-long CDQC, and immediately after their final pass/fail exam - a highly stressful, nocturnal, underwater navigation exercise.

They found that soldiers with more DHEA performed better during the final underwater navigation exam than those with less DHEA. These findings are being published by Elsevier in the August 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry.

Underwater navigation is a task that relies on an area of the brain called the hippocampus that is very sensitive to the negative effects of stress. "Animal studies have shown that DHEA buffers against stress, in part, by modulating receptors in this region of the brain," explained Dr. Morgan. "These findings are important in understanding why and how soldiers may differ in their ability to tolerate stress and also raise the possibility that, in the future, compounds like DHEA might be used to protect military personnel from the negative impact of operational stress."

Clearly, additional research is still needed but these findings are a step forward in the quest to help prevent or better treat the symptoms of stress-related disorders that these high-risk individuals experience.

Notes:
The article is "Relationships Among Plasma Dehydroepiandrosterone and Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate, Cortisol, Symptoms of Dissociation, and Objective Performance in Humans Exposed to Underwater Navigation Stress" by Charles A. Morgan III, Ann Rasmusson, Robert H. Pietrzak, Vladimir Coric, and Steven M. Southwick. Authors Morgan, Pietrzak, Coric, and Southwick are affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. Morgan, Pietrzak, and Southwick are also with the National Center for PTSD, VA CT Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut. Rasmusson is from the Department of Psychiatry, Boston University, and the National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System, in Boston, Massachusetts. The article appears in Biological Psychiatry, Volume 66, Issue 4 (August 15, 2009), published by Elsevier.

Source:
Jayne Dawkins
Elsevier




Personalized Homepage Weekly Newsletters Daily News Alerts
Hemophilia Opioid Induced Constipation Pneumococcal Disease ADHD Anxiety Asthma Atrial Fibrillation Autism Cancer Diabetes Lung Cancer Lupus Medicare / Medicaid Obesity and BMI Pancreatic Cancer Stem Cells All 'What Is...' Articles

Ophthalmology Urology
About Us News Licensing Free Website Feeds Free Tools & Content Tell a Friend Accessibility Help / FAQ Article Submission Links Contact Us

add medical news today to your facebook
medical news gadget

Forum Icon

Anxiety Forum

Discuss issues relating to anxiety / stress in our new forum.

Visit the anxiety forum


These are the most read articles from this news category for the last 6 months:
Top Article Star
Why Some Brains Are More Vulnerable To Stress And Resistant To Antidepressants
14 Jan 2010
A new study provides insight into the molecular characteristics that make a brain susceptible to anxiety and depression and less likely to respond to treatment with antidepressant medication...


CPR Saves Lives
CPR Saves Lives

People who know CPR can save a life - and the life they save may be a loved one.

more videos are available in our health videos section.