You are the nurse caring for a 51-year-old male who has just been diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer
You note the patient now has an increased blood pressure and heart rate. His respiratory rate has increased. You spend time talking with this patient and you note that his vital signs are now back in the normal range. What would you note has happened?
A) Cortisol levels are decreasing.
B) Endocrine activity has increased.
C) The patient is adapting to noxious stressors.
D) The sympathetic response has been activated.
Ans: C
Chapter: 6
Client Needs: D-4
Cognitive Level: Application
Difficulty: Moderate
Integrated Process: Nursing Process
Objective: 5
Page and Header: 81, Overview of Stress
Feedback: Selye developed a theory of adaptation to biologic stress that he named the general adaptation syndrome (GAS), which has three phases: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. During the alarm phase, the sympathetic "fight-or-flight" response is activated with release of catecholamines and the onset of the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) – adrenal cortical response. The alarm reaction is defensive and anti-inflammatory but self-limited. Because living in a continuous state of alarm would result in death, people move into the second stage, resistance. During the resistance stage, adaptation to the noxious stressor occurs, and cortisol activity is still increased. If exposure to the stressor is prolonged, the third stage, exhaustion, occurs. During the exhaustion stage, endocrine activity increases, and this has negative effects on the body systems (especially the circulatory, digestive, and immune systems) that can lead to death. Stages one and two of this syndrome are repeated, in different degrees, throughout life as the person encounters stressors. Based on these facts, option C is the only correct response.
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