Post-stress rumination predicts HPA axis responses to repeated acute stress

Abstract

Failure of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to habituate to repeated stress exposure is related with adverse health outcomes, but our knowledge of predictors of non-habituation is limited. Rumination, defined as repetitive and unwanted past-centered negative thinking, is related with exaggerated HPA axis stress responses and poor health outcomes. The aim of this study was to test whether post-stress rumination was related with non-habituation of cortisol to repeated stress exposure. Twenty-seven participants (n=13 females) were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) twice on consecutive afternoons. Post-stress rumination was measured after the first TSST, and HPA axis responses were assessed by measuring salivary cortisol 1 minute before, and 1, 10, 20, 60, and 120 minutes after both TSSTs. Stress exposure induced HPA axis activation on both days, and this activation showed habituation indicated by lower responses to the second TSST (F= 3.7, p=.015). Post-stress rumination after the first TSST was associated with greater cortisol reactivity after the initial stress test (r = 0.45, p < 0.05) and with increased cortisol responses to the second TSST (r = 0.51, p < 0.01), indicating non-habituation, independently of age, sex, depressive symptoms, perceived life stress, and trait rumination. In summary, results showed that rumination after stress predicted non-habituation of HPA axis responses. This finding implicates rumination as one possible mechanism mediating maladaptive stress response patterns, and it might also offer a pathway through which rumination might lead to negative health outcomes.

HPA-axis and inflammatory reactivity to acute stress is related with basal HPA-axis activity

“…Data for this article were from a larger research project studying the effects of stress on aging, which had been carried out in the Laboratory for Biological Health Psychology at Brandeis University for over two years (Breines et al, 2014; Gianferante et al, 2014). Participants ranged in age from 18 to 65 years and were recruited from the Brandeis University student population and the Greater Boston area.…”

Perseverative thoughts and subjective health complaints in adolescence: Mediating effects of perceived stress and negative affects

“…Adaptation (habituation) to repeated stressors can decrease the allostatic load on the body (McEwen, 1998), and some recent studies have suggested that perseverative cognitions after stressors prevent this adaptive response. Post-stress rumination, for example, predicted non-habituation of HPA-axis (cortisol) response to the repeated Trier Social Stress Test on a subsequent day (Gianferante et al, 2014), and ruminators failed to adapt their cardiac responses (blood pressure and heart rate) to a repeated 5-min emotional recall task (Johnson, Lavoie, Bacon, Carlson, & Campbell, 2012). These results might implicate that not only prolonged activation of stress-related responses but 2 G. Kökönyei et al the lack of habituation to repeated stressors also contribute to the adverse effect of rumination on somatic health.…”

Depression history as a moderator of relations between cortisol and shame responses to social-evaluative threat in young adults

“…For example, higher trait rumination was associated with reduced cortisol reactivity to social-evaluative threat in healthy adults (Zoccola, Dickerson, & Zaldivar, 2008). In contrast to trait rumination, higher state rumination immediately following the TSST is associated with higher acute cortisol responses and with non-habituation of cortisol responses to subsequent stressors (e.g., Gianferante et al, 2014). Taken together, these findings suggest that a relatively stable tendency to ruminate about negative emotions and their causes and consequences without engaging in problem solving (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2012), could contribute to lower cortisol responses in remitted-depressed individuals.…”