Effect of Acute Psychological Stress on Glucose Concentrations in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

March 2, 2007 updated by: University of Zurich
The study is designed to evaluate the effects of acute psychological stress on blood glucose levels. We will study one group of patients in the fasting state on a control day and a stress test day, another group will undergo the same protocol in the postprandial state.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Patients with type 2 diabetes often complain about changing blood glucose levels in times of emotional or mental stress, most subject's self-reporting higher blood glucose measurements in stressful conditions. To daily distress in diabetes additional emotional or mental stress can add a further momentum to destabilize glucose levels due to the adrenocortical response with enhancing insulin resistance and decreasing the endogenous insulin secretion. Another physiological link between stress and diabetes might be a higher sensitivity of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis, leading to antagonizing effects on insulin actions. A study in type 2 diabetes demonstrated that stressors can destabilize blood glucose levels. Stress levels in diabetes have been shown to have a relationship to diabetic complications. Previous studies of psychological stress in type 1 diabetes have shown no effect of elevated catecholamine levels after short-lived psychological stimuli on glucose levels, but a significantly delayed decrease of glucose concentrations after an acute psychological stress in the postprandial state in association with elevated cortisol levels, showing no change of glucose concentration in the fasting state. This was in contrast to previous data in healthy subjects, showing that low glucose levels before a psychological stress prevented the stress-induced activation of the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis, but postprandial higher blood glucose levels induced a large cortisol response. These findings of a different cortisol responses in the fasting or fed status in healthy or absolute insulin deficient subjects could also be relevant for glucose metabolism in subjects with type 2 diabetes.

The effect of an acute psychological stress on glucose concentration may critically depend on whether stress is applied in the fasting or fed state. A different metabolic response to stress depending on food intake could explain different findings in other clinical trials and contribute to understanding glucose responses to stress. The aim of our study was thus to test whether the effect of acute psychological stress on glucose concentrations is different in the fasting compared to the fed state in type 2 diabetes.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment

30

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Switzerland
      • Zurich, Switzerland, 8091
        • University Hospital of Zurich, Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 80 years (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • type 2 diabetes
  • oral antidiabetic treatment and/or long acting insulin overnight

Exclusion Criteria:

  • full insulin regimen
  • pregnancy or breast-feeding
  • instable coronary heart disease
  • poor visibility
  • proliferative diabetic retinopathy
  • uncontrolled arterial hypertension

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: ECT
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
change of glucose measurements after stress test in the fasting and fed state

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Zurich

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Peter Wiesli, MD, University of Zurich

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

February 1, 2006

Study Completion

August 1, 2006

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 2, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 2, 2007

First Posted (Estimate)

March 5, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

March 5, 2007

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 2, 2007

Last Verified

March 1, 2007

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • EK-1261

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Subscribe