Corticosteroid Responses to Hospital Admission

Estimation of corticosteroids in human cerebral cortex after death by suicide, accident, or disease

“…According to some authors, increases seem to be associated particularly with episodes of emotional crisis (Sachar, 1967;Sachar, Hellman, Fukushima, and Gallagher, 1970). It has also been found that the fall in plasma or urinary corticosteroid levels that occurs in depressed patients during adaptation to entry into hospital is often as great as or greater than any subsequent fall during the slower process of clinical recovery (Anderson and Dawson, 1965;Brooksbank and Coppen, 1967), and is similar to the fall which occurs during early hospitalization in mentally normal individuals (Fishman, Hamburg, Handlon, Mason, and Sachar, 1962;Mason, Sachar, Fishman, Hamburg, and Handlon, 1965). The degree of elevation of plasma cortisol in depression is not usually related to the severity of symptoms or commensurate with the evident suffering, and some investigators have suggested that there may be a functional lack of cortisol in depression, attributed by Kurland (1964) to its abnormal metabolism.…”

Decreased Plasma Cortisol in Response to Intramuscular ACTH in Ocular Hypertensives and Primary Open-angle Glaucomas

“…Hospitalization has been shown to increase morning plasma cortisol, the levels of urinary 17-hydroxycorticosteroids, and the response to single-dose dexamethasone suppression. [25][26][27] We assumed that the lack of difference in baseline plasma cortisol in this study is due to the stress of hospitalization in the Clinical Study Unit with an increase in plasma cortisol, particularly of the normal group, who would have lower plasma cortisols in an outpatient setting.…”

Stress lysis in childhood leukemia

“…A child undergoing initial evaluation for suspected leukemia experiences numerous potential sources of stress, including venipuncture 7, evaluation in an emergency setting 8, and witnessing their parents in an understandably distraught state. Prior studies have found that both physical and emotional stress, including that from intravenous catheterization 9 or hospital admission 10, can result in significant elevations in plasma cortisol concentrations. Venipuncture produces a rapid rise in ACTH, and plasma cortisol concentrations peak within the subsequent 30 min 11.…”