The Human Stress Response in a Simulated ED Setting

Study Summary

Stress is important for health. As emergency departments (EDs) are often stressful places, a better understanding of the human stress response is important for understanding how and why patients respond as they do when they come to the ED. Since the investigators cannot take up space in the ED for research, the investigators will instead recruit 20 methamphetamine-using participants who are not currently in treatment and 10 healthy adult matched participants to a simulated ED room in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Simulation Center. The investigators will have participants perform a stressor task involving public speaking and a simple arithmetic task. The investigators will see if this experiment can be made to be like being in an actual ED by varying what participants speak about in the task. By doing this, the investigators hope to find out several important things: 1) Is a stressor task feasible and acceptable to participants? 2) What does the stress response -- as measured by cortisol and alpha-amylase -- look like in these participants? 3) Does varying what participants talk about make the experiment seem more like an actual ED? 4) Do participants under stress show even mild symptoms of agitation as measured by clinical scales? If so, how often?

Primary Outcome

Measure feasibility and acceptability in the following ways: participant recruitment; the number of participants completing the experiment; and the acceptability ratings of the task after completion. The 9-point acceptability responses will be analyzed by calculating the mean and 95% confidence intervals for each question, then calculating a chi-square goodness of fit test across the 3 ranges of the scores. Answers to open-ended questions about participant experiences will be coded using conven

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Standard social stress task
• BEHAVIORAL Stressful experience in the ED

Study Locations (1)