Screening of people who particularly need mental-health care is important, because many people today suffer from psychological stress. We here examined whether it would be possible to predict future mood changes in people under psychological stress by salivary amylase. Forty healthy students were set a written examination as a stress, and were divided into three groups according to a Hardiness Scale. Salivary amylase was measured one week before and just after stress. Present mood state was assessed with Profile of Mood States (POMS) one week before, immediately after, and one week after stress. In high hardiness and moderate hardiness groups, there was no correlation between salivary amylase levels just after stress and mood scores. Interestingly, in low hardiness group, a significant positive correlation was observed between salivary amylase levels just after stress and three mood scores one week after stress: tension-anxiety (r=0.726, p<0.05), depression-dejection (r=0.636, p<0.05) and anger-hostility (r=0.633, p<0.05). Moreover, salivary amylase levels just after stress in low hardiness group also showed a significant correlation with these three mood scores immediately after stress. These findings indicate that salivary amylase may be useful in predicting mood changes after psychological stress in people with low hardiness.
