Hemodynamic profile of stress-induced anticipation and recovery

Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac o utput, and total peripheral resistance were measured in 100 healthy men and women with the aim of investigating hemodynamic profile during anticipatio n of, and recovery from, exposure to active and passive laboratory stressor s. A 5-min anticipatory period preceded two tasks, both of which lasted 2.5 min. The tasks were mental arithmetic ('beta-adrenergic' stress) and the c old presser test ('alpha-adrenergic' stress). Each task was followed by a 5 -min recovery period. Blood pressure and heart rate were measured with a Fi naPres 2300e, and stroke volume, cardiac output, and total peripheral resis tance were computed from these parameters. Salivary cortisol was measured i n relation to both tasks, and participants completed tests of state and tra it anxiety, locus of control, and hostility. As expected, mental arithmetic and the cold pressor test elicited myocardial and vascular patterns of rea ctivity, respectively. However, contrary to expectations, anticipatory and recovery hemodynamic profile involved essentially vascular responding for b oth stressors. Salivary cortisol increased in response to both tasks but on ly weakly correlated with hemodynamic changes. None of the subjective measu rements was a strong predictor of physiological reactivity. The findings su ggest that stress-induced anticipatory and recovery reactivity may be gener ally vascular rather than myocardial. This could have important implication s in light of suggestions that anticipatory and recovery responses may be b etter predictors of subsequent cardiovascular disease than direct stress-in duced reactivity. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.