ReviewNeurobiology of stress2020
A systematic review of the Trier Social Stress Test methodology: Issues in promoting study comparison and replicable research.
Review in Neurobiology of stress, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 68 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
68 citing papers in PubMed, 143 citations in OpenAlex.
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- The Effect of Mental Activation of One's Pet Dog on Stress Reactivity.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Differential Effects of Body Posture on Biological and Psychological Responses in the Trier Social Stress Test.Biopsychosocial science and medicineTrial
- Interleukin-6 responses to acute stress are not altered in alcohol use disorder despite elevated baseline inflammation.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Inducing stress, experiencing stress: Reflections and recommendations for the Trier Social Stress Test.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Review
- Salivary cortisol reactivity to stress in pregnancy: A scoping review.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Real-Time Stress Experiences and Physiological and Psychological Responses Among LGBTQ+ Young Adults: Findings from the Stress and Heart Pilot Study.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A Comprehensive Investigation of Social Anxiety and Social Evaluative Stress in Autistic Children and Adolescents and Specific Learning Disorders.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- MRI markers of neuroinflammation in untreated patients with subclinical generalized anxiety disorder.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Article
- Smelling the romantic partner's natural body odor increases psychological and autonomic but not cortisol stress responses.Scientific reports · 2026Article
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- Lifelong Impact of Prenatal Stress: Exacerbated Memory Impairments and Gene Expression Changes Under Adult Chronic Stress.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Standard deviation of pulse pressure measured using wearable devices improves the estimation of acute psychological stress.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Continuous Glucose Monitoring under standardised conditions regarding diet, exercise and stress in Healthy Young People (CGM-HYPE study): An exploratory clinical trial.PLOS digital health · 2025Article
- Altered association of plasmatic oxytocin with affective stress response in alcohol use disorder.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Psychoneuroendocrine stress response in female and male youth with major depressive disorder.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2025Article
- Multilevel and multimodal biobehavioral methods in the study of stress, trauma, and resilience: a systems approach.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2025Review
- Investigating the Impact of Maternal Stress on Milk Glucocorticoids: A Multimethod Approach.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
8 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Since its development in 1993, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) has been used widely as a psychosocial stress paradigm to activate the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) stress systems, stimulating physiological functions (e.g. heart rate) and cortisol secretion. Several methodological variations introduced over the years have led the scientific community to question replication between studies. In this systematic review, we used the Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) to synthesize procedure-related data available about the TSST protocol to highlight commonalities and differences across studies. We noted significant discrepancies across studies in how researchers applied the TSST protocol. In particular, we highlight variations in testing procedures (e.g., number of judges, initial number in the arithmetic task, time of the collected saliva samples for cortisol) and discuss possible misinterpretation in comparing findings from studies failing to control for variables or using a modified version from the original protocol. Further, we recommend that researchers use a standardized background questionnaire when using the TSST to identify factors that may influence physiological measurements in tandem with a summary of this review as a protocol guide. More systematic implementation and detailed reporting of TSST methodology will promote study replication, optimize comparison of findings, and foster an informed understanding of factors affecting responses to social stressors in healthy people and those with pathological conditions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.