Neuroendocrine and psychometric evaluation of a placebo version of the "Trier Social Stress Test"
Het, S.1, Rohleder, N.2, Schoofs, D.1, Kirschbaum, C.3, and Wolf, O. T.1
1Department of Cognitive Psychology, Ruhr-University, Bochum; 2Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA; 3Department of Psychology, University of Technology, Dresden
The "Trier Social Stress Test" (TSST) is a widely used laboratory stress paradigm. Studies which use the TSST as an independent variable need a non-stress control condition. However, control conditions currently employed are rather ill defined and do not control for important modulating variables (e.g. physical or cognitive load of the TSST). Here a standardized control condition for the TSST ("Placebo-TSST") is introduced and evaluated. It contains a free speech and a simple mental arithmetic task without the factors uncontrollability and social-evaluative threat. Using salivary markers of stress reactivity (cortisol and alpha amylase) and a questionnaire for anticipatory cognitive stress appraisal (PASA) the Placebo-TSST was evaluated by two independent studies with different designs. In both studies participants of the placebo group showed significantly lower levels of cortisol and alpha-amylase as well as lower cognitive stress appraisal. The results demonstrate that the Placebo-TSST is a promising tool for future psychobiological research.