Psychological and Metabolic Changes in the Adaptation of the Sirius 17-Day Experiment Participants to the Conditions of Isolation in a Confined Environment

Abstract

The paper dwells on the psychological and metabolic adaptation to 17-d isolation and confinement of an international crew in experiment SIRIUS. Crew members were tested 7 days prior and 2 days after the experiment using a battery of standardized methods including: Psychological Stress Measurement (N.E. Vodopianova), The Psychache Scale (К.А. Chistopolskaya and Т.V. Zhuravleva), Multilevel Personality Inventory Adaptability (A.G. Maklakov and S.V. Chermianin), Strategic Approach to Coping Scale (N.E. Vodopianova and E.S. Starchenkova), Extreme Environmental Response Inventory (А. Volkov and N.Е. Vodopianova) and Ermuedung–Monotonie–Saetting–Stress (А.B. Leonova and S.V. Velichkovskaya). Psychological testing was accompanied by venous blood sampling for biochemical and hormonal analyses. The investigations revealed moderate increases in the content of stress-markers and a certain correlation of psychological, biochemical and hormonal stress-markers. Based on this evidence we conclude that stress was moderate and that organism responded adequately. Adaptive potential testing showed that each of the crew members had been highly adaptive to the stressful environment so that neither health, nor skills or efficiency were affected.