Silvia L. Iglesias

Psychological and Physiological Response of Students to Different Types of Stress Management Programs

Purpose. To design, implement, and examine the psychoneuroendocrine responses of three different types of stress management programs. Design. Randomly assigned. A pre/post experimental design comparing variables between three different programs and a control group. The first program included training in deep breathing, relaxation response, meditation, and guided imagery techniques (RRGI). The second program included training in cognitive behavioral techniques (CB). The third program included both RRGI and CB (RRGICB). Setting. The study was conducted at Buenos Aires University. Subjects. Participants (N = 52) were undergraduate students. Measures. Anxiety, anger, hopelessness, neuroticism, respiration rate, and salivary cortisol levels were assessed. Analysis. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to investigate differences in pre and post variables. Results. Subjects in the RRGI group showed significantly lower levels of anxiety (p < .011), anger (p < .012), neuroticism (p < .01), respiratory rate (p < .002), hopelessness (p < .01), and salivary cortisol (p < .002) after the treatment. Subjects in the CB group showed significantly lower levels of anxiety (p < .018), anger (p < .037), and neuroticism (p < .03) after the treatment. Subjects in the RRGICB group showed significantly lower levels of anxiety (p < .001), anger (p < .001), neuroticism (p < .008), hopelessness (p < .01), respiratory rate (p < .001), and salivary cortisol (p < .002) after the treatment. Subjects in the control group showed only one variable modification, a significant increase in cortisol levels (p < .004). Conclusions. The combination of deep breathing, relaxation response, meditation, and guided imagery techniques with CB seems to be effective at helping people to deal with stress.

Hair cortisol: A new tool for evaluating stress in programs of stress management.

AIMS Longitudinal and experimental studies have shown that chronic stress contributes to the onset and progression of different diseases. Although it is not possible to eliminate stress completely, people can learn to manage it by participating in different kinds of stress management interventions. This study examined the effectiveness of stress management interventions on neuroendocrine responses in stressed students and health professionals, by measuring hair cortisol in comparison to salivary cortisol. MAIN METHODS Salivary and hair cortisol measurements were performed in 37 subjects (31women, 6 men; mean age 34.0±10.6) who attended to a Coping Stress and Quality of Care Program at the University of Buenos Aires. Cortisol was measured at the beginning and at the end of the program. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory STAI was used to evaluate state and trait anxiety. KEY FINDINGS In subjects who completed the program, no differences were observed in salivary cortisol levels between the first and the last session. However, in these subjects, hair cortisol obtained in the last session was significantly lower than hair cortisol in the first session. SIGNIFICANCE Hair cortisol appears to be a better biomarker than salivary cortisol for evaluation of the effectiveness of a stress reduction program and it seems to be a better indicator of stress system dysregulation as well.

Analysis of diphenylamine and impurities using monolithic column with electrochemical detection

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method with electrochemical detection (ED) using a monolithic column was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantitative determination of aniline, 2-aminobiphenyl, and 4-aminobiphenyl in diphenylamine samples. The proposed HPLC method provides a shorter analysis time as compared to previously reported ones (less than 4 min). Method validation was performed in terms of sensitivity, repeatability, linearity, accuracy, detection limit, and quantification limit. It is found that the method has high accuracy and precision. The limits of detection obtained were 0.23 ng/mL for aniline and 0.30 ng/mL for 2-aminobiphenyl, 4-aminobiphenyl, and diphenylamine.

Innovative Immobilization Matrices.

We present a brief survey of some of the recent work of Professor Luis E. Díaz, performed together with his students and collaborators at the University of Buenos Aires. Dr Luis E. Díaz has been involved in research on biochemical and pharmaceutical sciences solving scientific and industry problems for over 40 years until he passed away. Prof. Díaz scientific interests included various topics from NMR spectroscopy to biomedicine but fundamentally he focused in various aspects of chemistry (analytical, organic, inorganic and environmental). This is not a complete survey but a sampling of prominent projects related to sol-gel chemistry with a focus on some of his recent publications.