Abstract
Effects of an academic stressor on the psychological and immune response in the young males. The aim of this study was to analyze the psychological and immune responses to an academic stress situation. In a pre-university examination, thirteen students had to answer a series of psychological tests, give self-reports and two samples were drawn to determine some immunological variables firstly, thirteen days before examination and then the previous day.The results show a significant increase of anxiety-state and significant decreases in the lymphocyte total re-count, monocytes, T CD8+ lymphocytes and NK cells. There was no total T CD4+ lymphocytes increase but therefore there was an increase in their percentage and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio. A modulator effect of the anxiety-trait was also found: there were significant differences between the highest and the lowest scores of this variable in the level of the leukocytes, monocytes, neutrophils and lymphocytes CD8+. Moreover, the interaction between anxiety-trait and the session turned out to be significant in the percentage of the lymphocytes CD8+ and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio.
