Reaction of the adrenal cortex to emotional stress

^THOUGH it has been generally as-sumed that psychological forces influence adrenocortical activity, the number of pub-lished studies on this subject is limited. Many of these studies have been made on small ani-mals where the extrapolation of results to man is at best controversial.7 ' 9~11- 21> 3Ti 42 In-vestigations in man have been generally inde-cisive because of the inadequacy of methods used to assess adrenocortical function.6 ' 8'13> 15.19,25,28,30,31.33,38,40 N e w m e t n o d s of analysis for steroids of adrenocortical origin in blood and urine have made possible a more quantitative approach to the problem. This study was designed to investigate the influ-ence of psychological stress upon adrenocorti-cal function, and to compare the changes in the 17-hydroxycorticosteroid levels found dur-ing emotional upset with those produced by other physical, chemical and endocrine stresses