Salivary Cortisol Lower in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Altered cortisol has been demonstrated to be lower in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in most studies. This cross-sectional study evaluated salivary cortisol at waking, 30 minutes after, and bedtime in 51 combat veterans with PTSD compared to 20 veterans without PTSD. It also examined the relationship of cortisol to PTSD symptoms using two classifications: DSM-IV and the more recent four-factor classification proposed for DSM-V. The PTSD group had lower cortisol values than the control group (F(6, 69) = 3.35, p = .006). This significance did not change when adding age, body mass index, smoking, medications affecting cortisol, awakening time, sleep duration, season, depression, perceived stress, service era, combat exposure, and lifetime trauma as covariates. Post-hoc analyses revealed that the PTSD group had lower area under the curve ground and waking, 30min, and bedtime values while the cortisol awakening response and area under the curve increase were not different between groups. The four-factor avoidance PTSD symptom cluster was associated with cortisol but not the other symptom clusters. This study supports the finding that cortisol is lower in people with PTSD.

ApoE2 Exaggerates PTSD-Related Behavioral, Cognitive, and Neuroendocrine Alterations

“…Low cortisol levels have been frequently reported in PTSD patients (Young and Breslau, 2004;Wahbeh and Oken, 2013). However, the effects of APOE on cortisol levels in humans (Fiocco et al, 2008;Peskind et al, 2001) and mice (Raber et al, 2000;Reverte et al, 2014;Robertson et al, 2005;Thorngate et al, 2002) are less clear.…”

“…Data used in this analysis included genetic data for 110 individuals, 6 of whom were female (all E3/E3) and their data were not included in this study; complete clinical measures for 92 men; and cortisol measurements for 82 of these individuals. Salivary cortisol was collected at waking, 30 min after waking, and bedtime using Sarstedt Salivettes (Sarstedt, Germany) on two consecutive weekdays, as described previously (Wahbeh et al, 2008;Wahbeh and Oken, 2013). Participants fasted for the waking and 30-min sample, and the importance of collecting the sample immediately upon waking and exactly 30 min after was stressed to the participants.…”

Neuroinflammatory pathways in anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and obsessive compulsive disorders

“…Activity of the HPA axis has been found to be dysregulated in individuals with PTSD, resulting in altered activity of cortisol (Wahbeh and Oken, 2013), due to a shift in Th1/Th2 balance to Th2 dominance. This dysregulation in proinflammatory cytokines that potentially leads to excess inflammation (Gill et al, 2009) has been the focus of recent psychiatric immunology research.…”

Relação estresse e cortisol nas forças policiais: análise bibliométrica com aplicabilidade do programa sophie

“…Three articles were published in journals with impact factor equivalent to A2. [34][35][36] five were published in journals with impact factor equivalent to B1 [37][38][39][40][41] and six articles were equivalent to journals in journals B2. [42][43][44][45][46][47] The articles included in this review were duly referenced and are presented in figure 1 in ascending chronological order.…”