Psychosomatic Medicine 31:331-341 (1969)
© 1969 American Psychosomatic Society

Stimulus, Affect, and Plasma Free Fatty Acid

¹ Department of Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and the Veterans Administration Hospital Cincinnati, Ohio
² Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California, California College of Medicine, Irvine, Calif.

In healthy young men average levels of plasma free fatty acid (FFA) correlated with anxiety, which had been measured by content analysis of speech samples in an initial sample, but not with that measured in a second sample obtained during a 45-min experimental period. The correlation was significant whether the first verbal sample was obtained immediately or 25 min after the beginning of the experimental period. A second verbal sample obtained at the 25- or 45-min point in the session did not correlate with the average FFA per experimental session. Fasting FFA levels were lower in well-conditioned athletes as contrasted to nonathletes, and after 9 hr, as opposed to 14 hr, fasting. The request for and production of a verbal sample acted as a stimulus effecting a rise in FFA. This rise correlated significantly with anxiety scores derived from the verbal samples. Typically anxious subjects showed the greatest FFA responsivity. The present group of college athletes had a minimal average FFA rise following venipuncture. They also showed decreased variability in FFA with repeated experimental exposure. These findings support the hypothesis that adaptation can occur.