Psychosomatic medicine
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Psychosomatic medicine · May 2003
Review Meta AnalysisImpact of depression on experimental pain perception: a systematic review of the literature with meta-analysis.
This systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to examine the impact of depression on the perception of experimental pain stimuli. ⋯ Depressed subjects are less likely to perceive a sensory stimulus as being painful compared with nondepressed controls. The influence of depression on attention to the pain stimulus may account for this effect. More studies are required to enable us to determine the impact of depression on absolute sensory perception threshold and pain tolerance. Furthermore, more studies would enable the examination of depression on the perception of different modalities.
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Psychosomatic medicine · May 2003
Comparative StudyDissociation between reactivity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system to repeated psychosocial stress.
This study investigated endocrine and autonomic stress responses after repeated psychosocial stress. A first goal of the study was to investigate whether peripheral catecholamines and cardiovascular parameters would show similar or different habituation patterns after repeated stress. The second aim was to detect possible subgroups with regard to individual habituation patterns in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and monitor their respective sympathetic stress responses. ⋯ From these data we conclude that habituation to psychosocial stress seems to be specific for a given response system. Although HPA responses quickly habituate, the sympathetic nervous system shows rather uniform activation patterns with repeated exposure to psychosocial challenge.