Hematocrit and anxiety

Stress is believed to increase hematocrit. Groups of patients with generalized anxiety disorders and normal volunteers matched on age and sex were compared on resting levels of state anxiety, trait anxiety, depression, pulse rate, blood pressure and hematocrit. There were no differences between the patients and controls on hematocrit, although the former showed significantly higher state anxiety, trait anxiety and depression. The measurements were repeated in the anxious patients after one-half of the subjects received an intravenous infusion of epinephrine and the other half saline. Epinephrine was associated with significant increases in state anxiety, pulse and systolic blood pressure, but not with any hematocrit or plasma volume changes.