A Comparison of Acute Psychobiological Responses to Laboratory Stress Tests

Liverpool John Moores University

Status

Completed

Conditions

Stress, Psychological

Stress, Physiological

Treatments

Behavioral: MMST

Behavioral: TSST

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT06066320

ORION study 1B

Details and patient eligibility

About

The Mannheim Multicomponent Stress Test (MMST) is a validated laboratory stress test that combines cognitive, emotional, acoustic and motivational stress components. However the utility of the MMST as a viable alternative to the more commonly used Trier social stress test (TSST) to elicit HPA reactivity remains unclear as meaningful increases in saliva cortisol (> 2.5 nmol/l) have been shown to occur in <50% of participants yet the TSST typically elicits meaningful increases in saliva cortisol in >70% of participants; likely as a consequence of the greater social evaluative component in the TSST.

Using a randomised between groups design, this study aims to compare psychobiological responses to the MMST and TSST.

Enrollment

31 patients

Sex

All

Ages

18 to 35 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Participants who...

have read and signed the study informed consent
are healthy, recreationally active men and women aged 18-35 years
are willing to provide saliva samples throughout through the duration of the study
are using monophasic birth control (women only)

Exclusion criteria

Participants who...

have a recent history or are a current smoker
are currently taking prescription/Over-the-counter medication (excluding females taking oral combined contraception
consume ≥ 91 units of alcohol per month
have a clinically diagnosed history of cardiovascular and/or metabolic disease including diabetes and abnormal blood pressure
are pregnant
have a recent or ongoing viral or bacterial illness in past 4 weeks
have a clinically diagnosed psychiatric disorder
have a clinically diagnosed sleeping disorder
have a clinically diagnosed gambling addiction
BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 - calculated in the online health screening questionnaire
Endurance trained or engage in ≥3.5 hours of physical activity a week