Dataset Information

The cortisol awakening response (CAR) interacts with acute interpersonal stress to prospectively predict depressive symptoms among early adolescent girls.

ABSTRACT: The cortisol awakening response (CAR) has been shown to prospectively predict depression, but it remains unresolved whether a greater CAR predicts risk independently of subsequent acute stress, or whether greater CAR indicates increased vulnerability to subsequent acute stress. Further, no prior work has evaluated whether the CAR increases vulnerability to certain types of acute stress, but not others, in predicting depression. To address these gaps, we investigated whether the CAR predicted depressive symptoms alone and in interaction with acute interpersonal stress in a one-year longitudinal study of 86 early adolescent girls with no history of diagnosable depression. To index the CAR, adolescents collected saliva at waking and 30-minutes past waking for 3 days; compliance with the sampling protocol was electronically monitored. Diagnostic and objective contextual stress interviews were used to quantify acute stress in the 2-months prior to worst depressive symptom onset during the follow-up. Supporting hypotheses, results indicated that greater CAR predicted greater depressive symptoms, and interacted with acute interpersonal stress in predicting depressive symptoms. Further, the CAR interacted with acute dependent (i.e., at least partially arising from the person's behavior) interpersonal stress in predicting depressive symptoms. In contrast, the CAR did not interact with acute non-interpersonal stress nor acute interpersonal independent (i.e., fateful) stress in predicting depressive symptoms. These results further refine circumstances in which the CAR is predictive of depressive symptoms among early adolescent girls, and highlight the importance of focusing on etiologically relevant stress when testing interactions between physiological stress indicators and environmental stress.

SUBMITTER: Stroud CB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6635022 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

The cortisol awakening response (CAR) interacts with acute interpersonal stress to prospectively predict depressive symptoms among early adolescent girls.

Stroud Catherine B CB Vrshek-Shallhorn Suzanne S Norkett Emily M EM Doane Leah D LD

Psychoneuroendocrinology 20190427

The cortisol awakening response (CAR) has been shown to prospectively predict depression, but it remains unresolved whether a greater CAR predicts risk independently of subsequent acute stress, or whether greater CAR indicates increased vulnerability to subsequent acute stress. Further, no prior work has evaluated whether the CAR increases vulnerability to certain types of acute stress, but not others, in predicting depression. To address these gaps, we investigated whether the CAR predicted dep ...[more]

PMID: 31059979

Similar Datasets

Project description:IntroductionCortisol levels in adults show a sharp decrease from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Most toddlers take afternoon naps, which is associated with a less mature diurnal pattern characterized by a midday plateau in cortisol secretion. Napping in preschoolers produces a robust cortisol awakening response (CAR), which may account for such maturational differences. This experimental study extends prior work by examining whether the presence and timing of the nap-dependent CAR influences the diurnal cortisol pattern in toddlers.MethodsToddlers (n = 28; 13 females; 30-36 months) followed a strict biphasic sleep schedule (≥ 12.5h time in bed; ≥ 90 min nap) for ≥ 3 days before each of four randomly ordered, in-home cortisol assessments. For each assessment, saliva samples were obtained at morning awakening, ∼ 09:30, pre-nap, 0, 15, 30, 45, 90, and 135 min post-nap awakening (verified with actigraphy), and ∼ 19:30. On one day, children napped at their scheduled time, and parents collected saliva samples. On another day, children missed their nap, and parents collected saliva samples at matched times. On two other days, children napped 4h (morning) and 7h (afternoon) after awakening in the morning, during which time researchers collected pre- and post-nap saliva samples. Saliva was assayed for cortisol (μg/dl).ResultsThree-level multilevel models were used to estimate the CAR and diurnal cortisol patterns in all four conditions. Compared to the no-nap condition (no observed CAR; b = -0.78, p = 0.65), we found a pronounced cortisol rise following the morning nap (b = 11.00, p < 0.001) and both afternoon naps whether samples were collected by parents (b = 5.19, p < 0.01) or experimenters (b = 4.97, p < 0.01). Napping in the morning resulted in the most robust post-nap cortisol rise (b = 10.21, p < 0.001). Diurnal patterns were analyzed using piecewise growth modeling that estimated linear coefficients for five separate periods throughout the day (corresponding to morning decline, noon decline, post-nap rise, post-nap decline, and evening decline). We observed a significant post-nap rise in cortisol values on the parent-collected afternoon nap (b = 3.41, p < 0.01) and the experimenter-collected morning nap (b = 7.50, p < 0.01) days as compared to the no-nap day (b = -0.17, p = 0.82). No other differences in diurnal profiles were observed between the parent-collected nap and no-nap conditions; however, toddlers had a steeper evening decline on the day of the morning nap compared to the parent-collected afternoon nap (b = 0.30, p < 0.05) and no-nap conditions (b = 0.27, p < 0.05).DiscussionThese well-controlled findings suggest that the presence and timing of daytime naps influence the pattern of diurnal cortisol secretion in toddlers. They also provide support for the hypothesis that napping is the primary state driving the immature midday plateau in cortisol secretion, which becomes more adult-like across childhood. Prior studies of the diurnal cortisol pattern have employed a cubic model, and therefore, have not detected all possible variations due to napping. Our experimental data have important methodological implications for researchers examining associations between the slope of the diurnal cortisol pattern and developmental outcomes, as well as those utilizing afternoon cortisol reactivity protocols in napping children.

Project description:BackgroundPeer victimization is consistently linked to adolescents' alcohol use. However, the relative influence of relational and physical peer victimization on alcohol use, and timing of drinking initiation, is not well understood. In this study, we evaluate the impact of both relational and physical peer victimization on adolescent girls' alcohol use initiation, and the extent to which depression severity moderates these associations.MethodsParticipants were 2,125 girls in the Pittsburgh Girls Study, a longitudinal community-based study. Participants reported experiences of relational and physical peer victimization, depression severity, and alcohol use each year from ages 10 to 17. Cox proportional hazards (PH) regression analyses predicting the timing of first drink were conducted in 2 stages, testing for main effects of peer victimization in Model 1 and moderation by depression severity in Model 2.ResultsAnalyses were split at age 14 to adjust for PH violations. Model 1 results supported a main effect for relational (Hazards ratio [HR] = 1.83, CI: 1.46 to 2.28 ≤ age 13; HR = 1.23, CI: 1.05 to 1.45 ≥ age 14) but not physical victimization on timing of alcohol use onset (HR = 1.10, CI: 0.88 to 1.39). Model 2 results show that depression severity moderates the association between relational victimization and alcohol use initiation: the association between relational victimization and early alcohol use onset was stronger for lower depression severity (-1 SD HR = 2.38, CI: 1.68 to 3.39 ≤ age 13; -1 SD HR = 1.48, CI: 1.10 to 1.52 ≥ age 14).ConclusionsResults demonstrate that relational (and not physical) victimization predicts earlier drinking among adolescent girls. Relational peer victimization conferred greater risk for alcohol use initiation when depression severity was lower, whereas girls with high depression severity engaged in early alcohol use regardless of peer victimization. Results suggest that interventions focused on relational peer victimization may have spillover effects for delaying girls' alcohol use initiation, particularly in early adolescence, when this association is most robust.

Dataset Information

The cortisol awakening response (CAR) interacts with acute interpersonal stress to prospectively predict depressive symptoms among early adolescent girls.

Publications

The cortisol awakening response (CAR) interacts with acute interpersonal stress to prospectively predict depressive symptoms among early adolescent girls.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets