Psychosocial stress-induced activation of salivary alpha-amylase: an indicator of sympathetic activity?

Assessment of sympathoadrenal medullary system (SAM) activity is only possible to date via measurement of catecholamines in blood plasma or via electrophysiological methods. Both ways of measurement are restricted to endocrinological or psychophysiological laboratories, as both require either immediate freezing of blood samples or complex recording devices. Efforts have therefore been undertaken to find a method comparable to salivary cortisol measurements, in which noninvasive samples can be taken at any place and stored at room temperature for sufficient time before later analysis in the laboratory. Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) is a candidate that may prove useful in this context. We show here that sAA activity is increased by acute psychosocial stress (Trier Social Stress Test) and that increases in sAA correlate with increases in norepinephrine. We further report that sAA exhibits a stable circadian pattern that mirrors that of salivary cortisol. In conclusion, the current data show that salivary alpha-amylase may serve as an easy-to-use index for SAM activity. However, some questions remain to be answered; for example, what impact does salivary flow rate exert on stress-induced sAA activity?