Self-reported symptoms of depressed mood, trait anxiety and aggressive behavior in post-pubertal adolescents: Associations with diurnal cortisol profiles

Abstract

Self-reported symptoms of depressed mood, trait anxiety and aggressive behavior in post-pubertal adolescents Van Den Bergh, Bea; van Calster, B.; Lagae, L.; Van Huffel, S. Published in: Hormones and Behavior Publication date: 2008 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA):Van den Bergh, B. R. H., van Calster, B., Lagae, L., & Van Huffel, S. (2008). Self-reported symptoms of depressed mood, trait anxiety and aggressive behavior in post-pubertal adolescents: associations with diurnal cortisol profiles. Hormones and Behavior, 54(2), 253-257. General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.-Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research -You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain -You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. The association between self-reported symptoms and diurnal cortisol profiles was studied in post-puberty adolescents (29 boys and 29 girls, M age = 15.06 years). The adolescents completed the Children's Depression Inventory, State Trait Anxiety Inventory, and an Aggressive behavior scale. The diurnal cortisol profile was derived from three saliva samples, collected at awakening, noon and evening on a week-end day. Univariate repeated measurement regressions revealed that depressed mood and trait anxiety were strongly and aggressive behavior was weakly related to the diurnal cortisol profile: greater emotional distress was associated with flatter diurnal cortisol profiles. Multivariate analysis, however, revealed that only trait anxiety made an independent contribution. Further analyses suggested that trait anxiety was related to elevated evening cortisol rather than to decreased awakening cortisol and that from a trait anxiety score of 38 onwards, high anxious adolescents show clearly higher evening cortisol than low anxious adolescents. These data suggest that anxiety disorder comorbidity might explain some of the differences in HPA-axis function among depressed patients. A B S T R A C T A R T I C L E I N F O

From high anxiety trait to depression: a neurocognitive hypothesis

“…Healthy human subjects with high neuroticism displayed significantly greater levels of salivary cortisol in the post-waking period than those with lower neuroticism [32]. In adolescents, differences in cortisol levels were also found in the evening, with high anxious adolescents showing higher levels than low anxious adolescents [33]. During task performance, a moderator effect of trait anxiety on cortisol secretion was observed, suggesting that HPA activation due to performance pressure is stronger in subjects scoring high on anxiety measures, an effect that was understood to be potentially related to the increased attendance to threatening information and the interpretation of ambiguous events in a threatening way in high anxious individuals [34].…”

Increased cortisol awakening response and afternoon/evening cortisol output in healthy young adults with low early life parental care

“…To allow for the examination of group differences in awakening time, participants were asked to record awakening time on the days of saliva collection. Among numerous psychological variables, depression (or symptoms of depressed mood) and anxiety have been shown to be associated with the CAR (Chida and Steptoe 2009;Fries et al 2009) and different measures of diurnal cortisol levels (den Hartog et al 2003;Giese-Davis et al 2004; Van den Bergh et al 2008;Vreeburg et al 2009). Moreover, lower self-esteem and higher levels of depressive symptomatology and anxiety were found in participants with low parental care experiences (Engert et al 2009(Engert et al , 2010.…”

Time‐of‐day effects in arousal: disrupted diurnal cortisol profiles in children with ADHD

“…The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 2001) was used to screen for current behavioural and emotional problems; including internalizing problems that have been related to alterations in cortisol levels ( Van den Bergh, et al, 2008). This questionnaire, completed by parents, has good reliability and validity (Achenbach, 2001).…”

“…Based on our hypothesis of disrupted arousal-related circadian rhythm in ADHD (i.e., hypo-and hyperarousal at different times of day), we expected (i) a significant difference in cortisol increase after awakening among the three groups (ADHD+ODD, ADHD, and controls), and (ii) a significant interaction of group x time, reflecting that group differences in cortisol level depend on the time of day when samples were collected for these measurements. The influence of other factors that may modulate levels of arousal such as age, sex, pubertal stage, body mass index (BMI) (Adam, 2006;Oskis, et al, 2009), and internalizing problems (such as depressive and anxiety symptoms) (Van den Bergh, Van Calster, Pinna Puissant, & Van Huffel, 2008) was evaluated, also.…”