PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL APPROACHES TO ASSESSING THE LEVEL OF STRESS IN MEDICAL STUDENTS
The aim of the study was development of new approaches to assessment of stress response level in medical students at different periods of educational activity based on complex analysis of psychophysiological and biochemical stress markers. Material and methods. With the help of psychophysiological and biochemical methods in the dynamics of the of the study year, an assessment of the level of stress in 29 medical students was made. At respondents estimated the level of anxiety, alarm, defined features of the endogenous account of time. The level of cortisol in saliva was determined by enzyme immunoassay. Results. The content of cortisol in saliva at the beginning of the semester was taken as a base line. At the end of the semester, the concentration of cortisol in saliva significantly decreased by more than an order of magnitude (p = 0.003). The level of situational anxiety at the beginning of the semester in the group of students corresponded to a moderate level. At the end of the semester, anxiety was significantly higher (p = 0.0002). Conclusion. They found a mirror picture between psychoemotional and biochemical markers of stress: the anxiety of respondents increased at the end of the semester, and the level of salivary cortisol was higher at the beginning of the study year.