Hormone Levels Contribute To Stress Resilience
August 6, 2009
It is important to understand what biological mechanisms contribute to an
individual's capacity to be resilient under conditions of extreme stress, such
as those regularly experienced by soldiers, police, and firefighters. Dr.
Charles A. Morgan III and his colleagues from Yale University and the VA
National Center for PTSD have worked closely with collaborators at the Special
Forces Underwater Warfare Operations Center to study special operations soldiers
enrolled in the military Combat Diver Qualification Course (CDQC).
Dehydroepiandrosterone, or "DHEA" as it is commonly known, is a
hormone that is secreted by the adrenal gland in response to stress. Although
medical scientists have known for over a decade that DHEA provides beneficial,
anti-stress effects in animals, they did not know until now whether this was
also true for humans.
The scientists completed psychological and hormone assessments on a group of
soldiers the day before they began the month-long CDQC, and immediately after
their final pass/fail exam - a highly stressful, nocturnal, underwater
navigation exercise.
They found that soldiers with more DHEA performed better during the final
underwater navigation exam than those with less DHEA. These findings are being
published by Elsevier in the August 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry.
Underwater navigation is a task that relies on an area of the brain called the
hippocampus that is very sensitive to the negative effects of stress.
"Animal studies have shown that DHEA buffers against stress, in part, by
modulating receptors in this region of the brain," explained Dr. Morgan.
"These findings are important in understanding why and how soldiers may
differ in their ability to tolerate stress and also raise the possibility that,
in the future, compounds like DHEA might be used to protect military personnel
from the negative impact of operational stress."
Clearly, additional research is still needed but these findings are a step
forward in the quest to help prevent or better treat the symptoms of
stress-related disorders that these high-risk individuals experience.
Notes:
The article is "Relationships Among Plasma
Dehydroepiandrosterone and Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate, Cortisol, Symptoms of
Dissociation, and Objective Performance in Humans Exposed to Underwater
Navigation Stress" by Charles A. Morgan III, Ann Rasmusson, Robert H.
Pietrzak, Vladimir Coric, and Steven M. Southwick. Authors Morgan, Pietrzak,
Coric, and Southwick are affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry, Yale
University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. Morgan, Pietrzak, and
Southwick are also with the National Center for PTSD, VA CT Healthcare System,
West Haven, Connecticut. Rasmusson is from the Department of Psychiatry, Boston
University, and the National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System, in
Boston, Massachusetts. The article appears in Biological Psychiatry,
Volume 66, Issue 4 (August 15, 2009), published by Elsevier.
Source:
Jayne Dawkins
Elsevier
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