Plasma ACTH and growth hormone concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay in human subjects exposed to a variety of stressful stimuli including insulin-induced hypoglycemia, electroconvulsive shock therapy (EST), Histalog, surgical procedures and vasopressin. Whereas EST was always followed by an abrupt rise in plasma ACTH, significant changes in growth hormone concentrations were never observed. Following Histalog injection, the rise in plasma growth hormone occurred 20-30 minutes after the rise in plasma ACTH. Increases in plasma growth hormone were observed with moderate hypoglycemia in cases where no significant rise in plasma ACTH occurred. Dissociation of ACTH and growth responses to these stimuli as well as to surgery and vasopressin suggests that the two hormones are not discharged through a common pathway responding in a non-discriminatory fashion to all noxious stimuli. The secretory response of growth hormone to a variety of stimuli characterized by carbohydrate deficit, established in previous studies, seems to be independent of pathways responding generally to ,,stress''.