Impact of Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) on Salivary Cortisol Secretion

Abstract

Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is a widely used psychosocial stress paradigm conducted in a laboratory setting which has been shown to reliably elicit a physiological stress response in various study samples. However, no study to date has investigated the responses to the TSST in Chinese sample. Therefore, in the present study, healthy male and female volunteers (N=30) performed the standardized TSST protocol, during which several subjective measures (Profile of Mood State and the visual rating scale) and objective measures (heart rate and salivary Cortisol) were assessed. The results showed that participants exhibited a significant increase in heart rate and salivary Cortisol, and reported more anxiety immediately following the TSST compared to baseline. Furthermore, while men and women did not differ with respect to physiological response to TSST, women did report higher levels of anxiety compared to men. The findings demonstrated that TSST is a protocol with good applicability in Chinese participants and could be used to conduct psychosocial stress research in China. Sex differences failed to reliably discriminate between male and female in objective measures to stressors which were achievement-oriented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)