Increased Anxiety Induced by Listening to Unpleasant Music during Stress Exposure is Associated with Reduced Blood Pressure and ACTH Responses in Healthy Men.

The relationship between anxiety and neuroendocrine response to stress stimuli is still not fully understood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the contribution of acute increase in state anxiety to neuroendocrine activation under stress conditions. To do so, it was necessary to find a stress condition of the same character and intensity with and without a rise in state anxiety. We have decided to make advantage of the effects of listening to music on anxiety and to apply a new methodological approach. A group of fourteen healthy volunteers participated in a counterbalanced crossover design study. Stress procedure consisted of mental (Stroop test, mental arithmetic) and physical (handgrip exercise) tasks was combined with listening to music played forward (pleasant) or backwards (unpleasant). The results confirmed our hypothesis, namely the condition with listening to unpleasant music was anxiogenic, while the other was not. In case of increased state anxiety, the rise in ACTH concentrations in response to mental challenge and the increase in systolic blood pressure induced by handgrip exercise was reduced compared to the situation with unchanged anxiety. Concentrations of testosterone, oxytocin, vasopressin and aldosterone were slightly increased in response to the stress paradigm accompanied with increased anxiety. In conclusion, the present data demonstrate that acute increase in state anxiety contributes to neuroendocrine activation under stress conditions. Moreover, the results show that listening to music may both positively and negatively influence the perception of stress and the level of anxiety which might have functional consequences. © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.
PMID: 23860406