The persistent effect of acute psychosocial stress on heart rate variability.

Background: As stress occurs repetitively every day, the biological modifiers should also have enough time to restore the normal state of hemostasis; otherwise, chronic stress would be anticipated. The aim of the present study was to examine the persistence of stress based on subjective emotion, salivary cortisol, and linear and non-linear features of heart rate variability (HRV) in both genders.

Methods: Thirty-three healthy young volunteers (23 men and 10 women) participating in this study were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST).