The Human Stress Response in a Simulated ED Setting

Summary

Stress is important for health. As emergency departments (EDs) are often stressful places, a better understanding of the human stress response is important for understanding how and why patients respond as they do when they come to the ED. Since the investigators cannot take up space in the ED for research, the investigators will instead recruit 20 methamphetamine-using participants who are not currently in treatment and 10 healthy adult matched participants to a simulated ED room in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Simulation Center. The investigators will have participants perform a stressor task involving public speaking and a simple arithmetic task. The investigators will see if this experiment can be made to be like being in an actual ED by varying what participants speak about in the task. By doing this, the investigators hope to find out several important things: 1) Is a stressor task feasible and acceptable to participants? 2) What does the stress response -- as measured by cortisol and alpha-amylase -- look like in these participants? 3) Does varying what participants talk about make the experiment seem more like an actual ED? 4) Do participants under stress show even mild symptoms of agitation as measured by clinical scales? If so, how often?

Conditions

• Stress Physiology
• Stress Reaction
• Substance Use Disorders
• Methamphetamine-dependence
• Stress, Emotional

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Standard social stress task

Participants will be asked to respond in detail to three scenarios. This is a standard social stressor task. Participants may be prompted by an experimenter. However, the participant will receive no verbal nor nonverbal feedback.

BEHAVIORAL

Stressful experience in the ED

Participants will be asked to imagine and then describe both feelings and bodily sensations experienced at their most stressful ED visit, in order to help them more fully re-experience the situation. In this regard, the second condition is more similar to stress imagery employed by Sinha et al, which elevated cortisol to a greater degree than a social stressor task. Participants may be prompted by an experimenter. However, the participant will receive no verbal nor nonverbal feedback.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Arkansas

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Alison Oliveto, Ph.D. · University of Arkansas

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

21 Years

Max Age

55 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-08-26

Primary Completion

2026-12-31

Completion

2026-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations