Urinary output of endogenous monoamine oxidase inhibitory activity is related to everyday stress.

The MAO A and B inhibitory components of urinary tribulin were investigated in normal individuals (11 males and 24 females, mean age +/- SD; 27.1 +/- 4.5 years) in relation to everyday stress. Volunteers collected a urine sample at the same time (late evening) on five days over a single week. On each occasion subjects also completed a mood adjective checklist which measured perceived stress levels over the day in question. For each subject all daily measures were aggregated. Mean individual urinary MAO A and B inhibitory activity was found to be positively correlated with stress scores both before (r = 0.38, p < 0.05 and r = 0.37, p < 0.05 respectively, n = 35) and after (r = 0.35, p < 0.05 and r = 0.33, p < 0.05 respectively, n = 35) correction for the effects of urinary volume. These results suggest that in normal healthy individuals high endogenous MAO inhibitory activity in the urine is indicative of a relatively enduring state of everyday stress.