Suspense Increases Salivary Cortisol

Abstract

The pathological relevance of endocrine responses to stressful experiences is purely understood. This present lack of knowledge can be partly attributed to methodological difficulties, e.g. taking blood samples under laboratory conditions and limits to obtain samples continuously and in sufficient amounts. However, recent developments of highly sensitive radioimmunoassays (R1A) allow assessment of hormones in saliva. This method has the following advantages: (1) Saliva samples are easily and repeatedly obtainable by the subject himself; (1) saliva sampling does not demand stressful venipuncture; (2) sampling does not require the presence of laboratory equipment and personnel; (4) salivary hormones seem to represent the free and biological active steroid fraction which is available to target tissues. These advantages give a promising prospectus for clinical psychoendocrinology.