CORTICAL AND MEDULLARY ADRENAL ACTIVITY IN EMOTIONAL STRESS

Abstract

Adrenocortical activation, as reflected by a rise in the plasma level of 17-hydroxycorticosteroids, occurs before a surgical operation (Franksson & Gemzell, 1955) and during situations of emotional disturbance (Bliss et al., 1956). The plasma level of 17-hydroxycorticosteroids after delivery is higher in primiparae than multiparae (Gemzell, 1954), an observation which also suggests that psychological stress which is more intensively felt by a woman in her first than her subsequent deliveries, may activate the adrenal cortex. Adrenomedullary activation by emotional stimuli was demonstrated in animals in the classical experiments of Cannon (1929, 1931) and his co-workers. More recently Euler & Lundberg (1954) showed that emotional stress associated with air transportation was accompanied by a selective increase in the urinary excretion of adrenaline. In extensive experiments Elmadjian et al. (1958) have studied the catecholamine excretion in various kinds of stress and found increased excretion of adrenaline as well as noradrenaline depending on