Psychoneuroendocrinology
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Jun 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialThe impact of attentional training on the salivary cortisol and alpha amylase response to psychosocial stress: importance of attentional control.
This study examined the effects of three consecutive days of attentional training on the salivary alpha amylase (sAA), cortisol, and mood response to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). The training was designed to elicit faster disengagement of attention away from threatening facial expressions and faster shifts of attention toward positive ones. ⋯ This is among the first experimental manipulations to demonstrate that attentional training can elicit a paradoxical increase in three different markers of stress reactivity. These findings suggest that attentional training, in certain individuals, can have iatrogenic effects.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Jun 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialBrief mindfulness meditation training alters psychological and neuroendocrine responses to social evaluative stress.
To test whether a brief mindfulness meditation training intervention buffers self-reported psychological and neuroendocrine responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in young adult volunteers. A second objective evaluates whether pre-existing levels of dispositional mindfulness moderate the effects of brief mindfulness meditation training on stress reactivity. ⋯ The present study provides an initial indication that brief mindfulness meditation training buffers self-reported psychological stress reactivity, but also increases cortisol reactivity to social evaluative stress. This pattern may indicate that initially brief mindfulness meditation training fosters greater active coping efforts, resulting in reduced psychological stress appraisals and greater cortisol reactivity during social evaluative stressors.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Jun 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialBrief cognitive intervention can modulate neuroendocrine stress responses to the Trier Social Stress Test: buffering effects of a compassionate goal orientation.
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a critical mediator linking stress to health. Understanding how to modulate its reactivity could potentially help reduce the detrimental health effects of HPA axis activation. Social evaluative threat is a potent activator of this system. Access to control and coping responses can reduce its reactivity to pharmacological activation. Compassionate or affiliative behaviors may also moderate stress reactivity. Impact of these moderators on social evaluative threat is unknown. Here, we tested the hypotheses that interventions to increase control, coping, or compassionate (versus competitive) goals could reduce HPA-axis response to social evaluative threat. ⋯ Brief intervention to shift focus from competitive self-promotion to a goal orientation of helping-others can reduce HPA-axis activation to a potent psychosocial stressor. This supports the potential for developing brief interventions as inoculation tools to reduce the impact of predictable stressors and lends support to growing evidence that compassion and altruistic goals can moderate the effects of stress.