The Influence of Psychological Stress on the Levels of the Skin's Natural Moisturizing Factor in Croatian Medical Students.

Psychological stress may affect skin barrier homeostasis and slow down its recovery. Therefore, we aimed to examine the association between psychological stress levels and natural moisturizing factor (NMF) levels in the stratum corneum (SC). NMF levels were determined in the SC of 25 third-year and 25 sixth-year medical students in two periods (stressful and non-stressful) using the tape stripping method, high-performance liquid chromatography, and spectrophotometry.