The evolution of the painful sensitivity in acute and chronic stress

The clinical research was made on two groups of young volunteer students. We considered stress consisting in chronic informational overexposure during the examination session and the acute stress from their emotions before a hard examination. The painful sensitivity was analysed by measuring the retraction time of the finger from water at 55 degrees C. The experimental research was made on a group of 100 male mice. The acute stress was performed by subjecting each mouse to swim (behavioral despair test). Painful sensitivity was determined by the test of the hot plate heated at 50 degrees C. Individuals with hyper (H) and hypo (h) painful sensitivity were selected for the tests. In chronic stress, the results proved increased painful sensitivity (hyperalgia) more important at "h" compared to "H" (p < 0.05). In acute stress decreased painful sensitivity (stress analgesia) was noticed more significant at "H" compared to h" (p < 0.05). All these results suggested that the extreme "H" and "h" are two different stress behaviors with opposite mechanisms involved in stress analgesia. This hypothesis is related with studies which demonstrate the involvement in stress analgesia of non-opioid monoaminergic mechanisms together with the opioid mechanisms (Lewis, 1980).