Psychoneuroendocrinology
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Feb 2012
Comparative StudyComparison of the cortisol awakening response in women with shoulder and neck pain and women with fibromyalgia.
Shoulder and neck pain (SNP) and fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), two musculoskeletal conditions of unknown pathogenesis, share some common features in terms of altered neuroendocrine responses, pain and stress perception. However, the pain distribution in SNP is localized, whereas in FMS is more widespread. Because regional musculoskeletal pain may represent an intermediate stage along a continuum towards widespread musculoskeletal pain we compared the cortisol awakening response (CAR) in women with SNP with the CAR in FMS patients and healthy controls (HC) in a controlled hospital-hotel setting. ⋯ Women with SNP and FMS patients reported more health complaints, pain, and perceived stress than the HC, but women with SNP were less affected than the FMS patients. Women with SNP showed a tendency towards an elevated HPA axis activity compared with HC. The current findings may indicate that the hypercortisolism in regional musculoskeletal pain represent an intermediate stage towards the development of a hypocortisolism in widespread musculoskeletal pain.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Feb 2012
Victims of rape show increased cortisol responses to trauma reminders: a study in individuals with war- and torture-related PTSD.
Studies investigating cortisol responses to trauma-related stressors in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have yielded inconsistent results, demonstrating that cortisol responses were enhanced or unaffected when confronted with trauma reminders. This study investigated the effect of the type of trauma experienced on both salivary and plasma cortisol responses during confrontation with trauma-related material. Participants were 30 survivors of war and torture, with and without rape among the traumatic events experienced. ⋯ This effect was not found in plasma cortisol. Our results indicate that the type of traumatic stress experienced contributes to cortisol responses during the confrontation with trauma-related material. We hypothesize, that the nearness of the perpetrator during the traumatic event might shape later psychophysiological responding to trauma reminders.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Jan 2012
Chronic psychosocial stress induces reversible mitochondrial damage and corticotropin-releasing factor receptor type-1 upregulation in the rat intestine and IBS-like gut dysfunction.
The association between psychological and environmental stress with functional gastrointestinal disorders, especially irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), is well established. However, the underlying pathogenic mechanisms remain unknown. We aimed to probe chronic psychosocial stress as a primary inducer of intestinal dysfunction and investigate corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) signaling and mitochondrial damage as key contributors to the stress-mediated effects. ⋯ Colonic expression of CRF receptor type-1 was increased in CS rats, and negatively correlated with body weight gain. In conclusion, chronic psychosocial stress triggers reversible inflammation, persistent epithelial dysfunction, and colonic hyperalgesia. These findings support crowding stress as a suitable animal model to unravel the complex pathophysiology underlying to common human intestinal stress-related disorders, such as IBS.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Jan 2012
The cortisol awakening response in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is blunted and correlates with clinical status and depressive mood.
Considerable evidence indicates that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disease of the motor system, has an enormous impact on the patient's emotional and physical well-being. As previous findings indicated that particularly the rise in cortisol levels immediately after awakening, i.e., the cortisol awakening response (CAR), is associated with indices of physical and emotional well-being, we compared the CAR of 29 admitted ALS patients with that of 12 age-matched caregiver controls. Saliva samples for cortisol measurement were collected immediately, 15, 30 and 45 min after awakening. ⋯ Further, a smaller CAR significantly correlated with a more severe depressive mood status. No correlations were observed between total cortisol output during the first 45 min post-awakening and clinical or depressive status. In conclusion, our findings indicate that ALS patients show a blunted CAR, correlated with disease and depression severity.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Oct 2011
Controlled Clinical TrialInvestigation into the cross-correlation of salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase responses to psychological stress.
Stress is a multidimensional construct. To accurately represent stress physiology, multiple stress measures across multiple stress-related systems should be assessed. However, associations may be masked given that different systems underlie different time courses. ⋯ With a smaller effect size cortisol also significantly preceded sAA by 13.5 min (r = -.16, p < .001). We suggest that sAA and cortisol stress responses are reliably associated at various time lags throughout a stressful situation. As a possible connection site between HPA axis and SNS that may underlie sAA-cortisol associations, we discuss CRF neurons of the hypothalamus involved in sympathetic regulation.