Abstract

SILVA, Andressa Melina Becker da  and  ENUMO, Sônia Regina Fiorim. Stress in a hair: Systematic review on capillary cortisol. Aval. psicol. [online]. 2014, vol.13, n.2, pp. 203-211. ISSN 1677-0471.

The psychological stress has changed according to technological advances, including, besides the inventories, psychophysiological methods, with more precise measurements, as the concentration of cortisol. More invasive techniques, such as assessing blood or saliva and urine are replaced by hair analysis. This research analyzed by a systematic review of last ten years 19 studies using hair cortisol as an indicator of chronic stress, highlighting the type of population and methodology of biochemical analysis. It is concluded that cortisol measured by hair may be a biomarker of chronic stress, since evaluates the retrospective stress, besides not requiring repeated measures for this by reducing spending with biochemical reagents. It is potentially useful in clinical and sports contexts.

Keywords : cortisol; psychophysiology; biological markers.

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