Wolff, C. T., Friedman, S. B., Hofer, M. A., & Mason, J. W. (1964). Relationship between psychological defenses and mean urinary 17-hydroxycorticosteroid excretion rates: I. A predictive study of parents of fatally ill children. Psychosomatic Medicine, 26, 576-591.

Psychiatric predictions were related to 17-OHCS levels. The correlation was r = .41.

This means that psychological mechanisms modify the stress response making blood and urinary "markers" only weak predictors. They are not all useful for individual predictions because of the unknown psychological modifier variable.

At best, blood and urinary analyses for any "marker" variables may be good for some and useless or misleading for others.

Implication. Before blood "markers" are interpreted for either recovery from overtraining or overreaching, the psychological state of the athlete has to be known. An athlete's mood and dispositions if positive allow recovery to proceed, but if negative, recovery is slowed.

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