Stress
Conditions
Keywords
stress biology, cortisol, adrenocorticotropin, salivary biomarkers
Brief summary
Cortisol is a stress hormone that can be measured in saliva. This has provided a convenient way to evaluate the biological impact of day-to-day stressors that people encounter as they go about their lives, since saliva is so easy to collect. However, the biological meaning of saliva cortisol measures has never been carefully examined. The goal of this study is to collect saliva from a large group of people as they go about their every-day lives, to measure their cortisol levels, and then study them in the laboratory where Investigators can learn more about how their stress response system (which produces cortisol) is really functioning. Investigators can then determine much more precisely what saliva cortisol levels really mean in terms of stress system biology. This will allow investigators to obtain much more useful information from the next decade of research on naturalistic stress and its biological impact using saliva cortisol measures, helping investigators to understand how stress undermines health and how to combat this effect.
Interventions
DRUGMetyrapone
750 mcg, oral, administered twice, 3.5 hours apart
DRUGDexamethasone
Administered twice: 1.5 mg, oral, at 11 pm And 0.25 mg, oral, at bedtime at least one week before or after other administration.
DRUGCortrosyn
250 mcg, IV, bolus, in the afternoon.
DRUGCorticorelin ovine triflutate
100 mcg, IV, over 30 seconds, in the afternoon.
Sponsors
University of Michigan
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 50 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Medically healthy volunteers, ages 18 to 50 years
Exclusion criteria
* Pregnancy * Irregular menses, medications or drugs that effect HPA axis * Most psychiatric disorders * Medical problems that effect HPA axis or increase risks involved in participation
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| cortisol levels | Primarily measuring change from pre-drug baseline to peak occuring about 20 minutes to an hour later | cortisol measured in saliva and in blood. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| corticotropin (ACTH) | Primarily measuring change from pre-drug baseline to peak occuring about 10 minutes to an hour later | ACTH will be measured in blood using chemoluminescence detection. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed