NORADRENERGIC AND HORMONAL RESPONSES TO PHYSICAL EXERCISE IN ADOLESCENTS - RELATIONSHIP TO ANXIETY AND TOLERANCE TO FRUSTRATION

Seventy physically healthy 14-year-old adolescents, 40 boys and 30 gir ls, were evaluated psychologically and endocrinologically. After the p sychological tests (Anxiety Score Test for Adolescents, Rosenzweig, Pi ctures Frustration Test for Children), subjects were divided into grou p A, with low anxiety/sense of guilt and high self-esteem/tolerance to frustration and group B with the opposite. In both groups, we measure d basal plasma levels of noradrenaline (NE), growth hormone (GH), prol actin (PRL), melatonin (MT) and luteinizing hormone (LH) and their res ponse to physical exercise (the Harvard step test). Basal levels of th e hormones and of NE were not different in the two groups. After the p hysical stimulus, NE levels rose significantly more in B girls than in A and significantly less in B than in A boys. GH and PRL levels incre ased only in A girls and MT in B boys, while LH levels decreased in A boys and girls but not in B subjects.