Adrenal Stress Responses in Normal Men

Abstract

Comparisons of adrenal response measures in normal men operating a pursuit meter under different conditions of stress reflects the difficulty of the task as measured by scoring ability. Young men 16-20 years of age appear to call very little on adrenal cortical mechanisms to meet stresses which enhance adrenocortical responses of older men. Eosinopenia correlates better with the urinary excretion of epinephrine than with that of ketonic 17-ketosteroids. A nonadrenal factor may be involved in the eosinopenia in addition to the effects of epinephrine and the 11-oxysteroids. Further evidence is presented indicating that the better an individual''s performance, the smaller is his per cent increase in 17-ketosteroid output as a result of the stress.