Serum Cortisol, Progesterone and Total Antioxidant Status of Students Pre-and Post-Examination

Background: Stress is defined as a mental or emotional strain resulting from very demanding circumstances.In recent years, traumatic episode and poor results following school examination have made stress anissue of major concern in academics. This study aimed to investigate examination induced stress amongapparently healthy University students in relation to some biochemical parameters and antioxidants status preand post-examination.Materials and Methods: This is a case controlled study involving 40 examinees as test group and 40non-examinees as control group. Serum concentrations of cortisol and progesterone were estimated byELISA method, and total antioxidants status (TAS) was quantified by colorimetric method. Data obtainedwere subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS software application (version 16.0) and the results expressedas mean ± standard deviation.Results: The results showed that cortisol level was significantly decreased in pre (34.84±8.50) examinationthan in post (21.18±1453) examination while progesterone level was significantly increased from 0.42±0.32to 0.92±0.96 (p 0.05). The mean serum cortisolin subjects with outstanding academic activity was not statistically significant when compared to subjectswithout outstanding academic activity (p>0.05).Conclusion: the differences in the biochemical parameters observed in this study pre and post examinationsuggest that examination has the tendency to induce stress which could culminate to oxidative damage inchronic cases.