Acute Stress and Anxiety in Medical Residents on the Emergency Department Duty González-Cabrera, Joaquín Fernández-Prada, María Iribar-Ibabe, Concepción Molina-Ruano, Rogelio Salinero-Bachiller, María Peinado Herreros, José María Acute stress Cortisol Medical resident Emergency Department-duty day Anxiety The authors are grateful to the residents who participated in the study. They also thank Cruz Miguel Cendán Martínez (University of Granada, Granada, Spain) for his assistance with the application of SigmaPlot. The objectives of this longitudinal study were to compare salivary cortisol release patterns in medical residents and their self-perceived anxiety levels between a regular working day and a day when on call in the emergency department (ED-duty day) and to determine any differences in cortisol release pattern as a function of years of residency or sex. The study included 35 residents (physicians-in-training) of the Granada University Hospital, Granada, Spain. Acute stress was measured on a regular working day and an ED-duty day, evaluating anxiety-state with the Spanish version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Physiological stress assessment was based on salivary cortisol levels. Cortisol release concentrations were higher on an ED-duty day than on a regular working day, with a significantly increased area under the curve (AUC) (p < 0.006). This difference slightly attenuated with longer residency experience. No gender difference in anxiety levels was observed (p < 0.001). According to these findings, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and anxiety levels of medical residents are higher on an ED-duty day than on a regular working day. 2018-06-13T10:44:42Z 2018-06-13T10:44:42Z 2018-03-13 info:eu-repo/semantics/article González-Cabrera, Joaquín; et. al. Acute Stress and Anxiety in Medical Residents on the Emergency Department Duty. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 506 [http://hdl.handle.net/10481/51438] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/51438 10.3390/ijerph15030506 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España MDPI