The Relationship Between Salivary Biomarkers and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Score Under Mental Arithmetic Stress: A Pilot Study.

In Brief Measurement of stress hormones is a common objective method for assessment of mental stress. However, the stress of blood sampling alone may also increase stress hormone levels. In the present study, we sampled salivary biomarkers from healthy volunteers under noninvasive conditions and determined their efficacy to assess mental stress. Specifically, we examined the relationship between State Anxiety Inventory score (STAI-s) in subjects exposed to arithmetic stress and salivary chromogranin-A, α-amylase, or cortisol. The STAI-s was significantly correlated to salivary α-amylase (r = 0.589; P < 0.01) but not to salivary chromogranin-A or cortisol. Therefore, salivary α-amylase is a useful indicator of psychosocial stress. IMPLICATIONS: To determine the efficacy of salivary biomarkers for assessing mental stress, we examined the relationship between State Anxiety Inventory score and salivary chromogranin-A, α-amylase, and cortisol during a mental arithmetic task. Because there was a significant correlation with α-amylase only, this marker may be a useful indicator of mental stress.