Key result
A 5-minute acute mental stress task increased systolic blood pressure and heart rate by withdrawing parasympathetic nervous control in young male medical students.
Why the study?
Medical students experience immense mental stress that may affect cardiovascular health in the long run, which can be evaluated using heart rate variability to assess cardiac autonomic tone.
Does acute mental stress alter blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability in healthy young male medical students?
Cross-Sectional (n=30)
No
Does acute mental stress alter blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability in healthy young male medical students?
Acute mental stress in healthy young males significantly increases blood pressure and heart rate, driven primarily by a withdrawal of cardiac parasympathetic tone as measured by heart rate variability.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Acute mental stress may affect BP and HR in young men; leaves open generalizability and long-term CV implications.
Background: Medical students experience immense mental stress while understanding and retaining new terms, drug names and mechanisms and eventually generating a concept. Such stress, in long run, may affect their cardiovascular health. This can be assessed by heart rate variability, a reliable non-penetrating tool to determine the cardiac autonomic tone. Material and methods: Thirty healthy young male medical students of BPKIHS, Nepal of age 21.03 ± 1.73 years, and BMI 20.83 ± 2.07 kg/m2 were recruited for the present study. Their resting BP, HR, RR, and short-term heart rate variability (HRV) were recorded in sitting position. Each subject was given a mental stress for 5 min. Their BP, HR, and RR were recorded at 5th min of mental stress. HRV of 5 min was also recorded simultaneously during mental stress. Results: Mental stress increased SBP (p=0.001), DBP (p= 0.001), PR (p= 0.005) and RR (p= 0.042) in young male medical students. Time domain measures of HRV viz; RMSSD (p= 0.001), NN50 (p= 0.001) and PNN50 (p=0.001), which are markers of parasympathetic activity, were significantly decreased during mental stress. Conclusion: Acute mental stress increases BP and HR by withdrawing parasympathetic nervous control in young, healthy male medical students.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Pandey et al. (2020) conducted a cross-sectional in Healthy (n=30). Acute mental stress (MENSA workout questionnaire) vs. Resting state was evaluated on Systolic blood pressure (mmHg) (p=0.001). A 5-minute acute mental stress task increased systolic blood pressure and heart rate by withdrawing parasympathetic nervous control in young male medical students.
Synapse has enriched 10 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: