Figure 4.

Plasma cortisol responses to an acute stressor in monkeys experiencing stable or unstable social conditions during weeks 12–18 pi. (A) Saline pretreatment condition. (B) Dexamethasone pretreatment condition. The significant three-way interaction of social condition, pretreatment, and time indicated that the stress-induced increase in plasma cortisol from time 0 to time 120 was greater in stable animals; dexamethasone pretreatment resulted in a decline over the 2-hr period for unstable, but not stable, animals.