17-OHCS levels in combat. Special forces "A" team under threat of attack.

Abstract

EVALUATION of the role of the adrenal cortex in the response of man to stressful situations has long been a problem of major interest to investigators. Early the effects of relatively well defined and isolated environmental events were studied. These included studies of auto race drivers,¹college 0arsmen,²medical students taking final exams,³and patients prior to cardiac and pulmonary surgery.⁴Initially the stress of the event itself was regarded as the only significant variable against which the subjects physiological response was measured. The degree of stress which such events provided for the subjects under study was based entirely on subjective estimates by the investigators. Subsequent studies, especially those of Wolff,⁵Fox,⁶and Sachar,⁷modified this approach by suggesting the importance of individual difference in the psychological and physiological handling of threatening events in the environment,