ArticleIntegrative organismal biology (Oxford, England)2019
Glucocorticoids and "Stress" Are Not Synonymous.
Article in Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 124 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
124 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Meta-analysis reveals glucocorticoid levels reflect variation in metabolic rate, not 'stress'.eLife · 2023Pooled it
- Glucocorticoids in relation to behavior, morphology, and physiology as proxy indicators for the assessment of animal welfare. A systematic mapping review.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Stress in the city: meta-analysis indicates no overall evidence for stress in urban vertebrates.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Pooled it
- Corticosterone Concentration Varies With Metabolic Rate in Vertebrates.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Beyond Immediate Individual Care: Monitoring Captured Free-Ranging European Wild Ungulates to Refine Protocols.Veterinary sciences · 2026Review
- The Relationships of Season, Climate, Habitat, and Sex Variables With Fecal Cortisol, Progesterone, and Testosterone Metabolite Concentrations in Roe Deer.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) as a tool for conservation.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2026Review
- Going stressed underground: corticosterone-induced stress responses alter the movement and spatial ecology of males in a fossorial reptile.Movement ecology · 2026Article
- Prenatal stress, intimate partner violence and maternal cortisol trajectories: insights from a prospective birth cohort from São Paulo, Brazil.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Hair cortisol concentrations as marker of chronic stress in wild roe deer (Capreolus capreolus).Veterinary research communications · 2026Article
- Challenging 10 misconceptions in conservation physiology.Conservation physiology · 2026Article
- Stress, Well-Being, and Reproduction in Wildlife.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Article
- The intricate relationship between stress and animal welfare: from historical perspective to new avenues.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Psilocybin Enhances Cued Fear Extinction and Extinction Recall in Stress-Naïve, Acutely Stressed, and Chronically Stressed Mice.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2025Article
- DHEA and Cortisol in Rainbow Trout (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Body size, nutritional state and endocrine state are associated with calving probability in a long-lived marine species.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Social instability is associated with an elevated stress response but not with a fitness cost across vertebrate studies.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Protein Fractions as Indicators of Stress in Alpacas.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
64 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
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Reference to glucocorticoids as "stress hormones" has been growing in prevalence in the literature, including in comparative and environmental endocrinology. Although glucocorticoids are elevated in response to a variety of stressors in vertebrate animals, the primary functions of glucocorticoids are not responding to stressors and they are only one component of complex suite of physiological and behavioral responses to stressors. Thus, the use of the short-hand phrase "stress hormone" can be misleading. Further, simply measuring glucocorticoids is not equivalent to measuring a stress response, nor is manipulating glucocorticoids equivalent to exposing an animal to a stressor. In this commentary we highlight the problems with using functional names for hormones, and of treating cortisol or corticosterone as synonymous with stress. We provide recommendations to add clarity to the presentation of research on this topic, and to avoid conflation of glucocorticoids with stressors and the stress response in the design of experiments.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.