Adolescents’ cortisol responses to awakening and social stress; Effects of gender, menstrual phase and oral contraceptives. The TRAILS study

Abstract

. (2009). Adolescents' cortisol responses to awakening and social stress; Effects of gender, menstrual phase and oral contraceptives. The TRAILS study. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 34(6), 884-893. DOI: 10.1016884-893. DOI: 10. /j.psyneuen.2009 Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons).Take-down policy If 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.Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Summary Studies on the influence of sex hormones on cortisol responses to awakening and stress have mainly been conducted in adults, while reports on adolescents are scarce. We studied the effects of gender, menstrual cycle phase and oral contraceptive (OC) use on cortisol responses in a large sample of adolescents. Data come from TRAILS (TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey), a prospective population study of Dutch adolescents. This study uses data of 644 adolescents (age 15-17 years, 54.7% boys) who participated in a laboratory session including a performance-related social stress task (public speaking and mental arithmetic). Free cortisol levels were assessed by multiple saliva samples, both after awakening and during the laboratory session. No significant effects of gender and menstrual phase on cortisol responses to awakening were found, while girls using OC displayed a slightly blunted response (F(1, 244) = 5.30, p = .02). Cortisol responses to social stress were different for boys and free-cycling girls (F(3, 494) = 9.73, p < .001), and OC users and free-cycling girls (F(3, 279) = 15.12, p < .001). Unexpectedly, OC users showed no response at all but displayed linearly decreasing levels F(1, 279) = 19.03, p < .001) of cortisol during the social stress test. We found no effect of menstrual cycle phase on cortisol responses to social stress (F(3, 157) = 0.58, p = .55). The absence of a gender difference in the adolescents' cortisol awakening response found in this study is consistent with

Individual differences in cortisol stress response predict increases in voice pitch during exam stress

“…Among the women in our study, the use of hormonal contraception did not affect the cortisol response to stress. This is in contrast to some previous work that, while reporting no effect of menstrual cycle phase on cortisol levels, found that women taking hormonal contraceptives showed a blunted cortisol stress response (Bouma et al, 2009;Liening et al, 2010). Several studies also show a greater increase in free cortisol levels among men than women in response to psychosocial stress (reviewed in Kudielka and Kirschbaum, 2005), therefore the present study warrants replication among men.…”

“…Considerable variation in people's responses to various stressors has been well documented, and has been tied to factors such as sex, smoking habits, various illnesses, steroid use, and the use of hormonal contraception among women (Bouma et al, 2009;Kudielka et al, 2007;Kudielka and Kirschbaum, 2005;Liening et al, 2010). Despite controlling for these variables in our study, we still observed considerable variation in the stress response.…”

“…Cortisol responses to social stress are largely unaffected by time of day (Bouma et al, 2009;Kudielka et al, 2004b).…”

Converging evidence for central 5-HT effects in acute tryptophan depletion

“…1 A recent review article in Molecular Psychiatry questioned the validity of ATD. 2 Although we agree that ATD's effects on 5-HT activity at the molecular level need further clarification, van Donkelaar et al 2 goes too far in challenging whether ATD exerts its effects through serotonergic mechanisms. There is strong evidence that ATD reduces brain 5-HT and disrupts stimulated 5-HT release, 3,4 and converging translational findings support a central role for brain 5-HT in ATD's effects on cognition and behavior.…”

“…There is strong evidence that ATD reduces brain 5-HT and disrupts stimulated 5-HT release, 3,4 and converging translational findings support a central role for brain 5-HT in ATD's effects on cognition and behavior. [5][6][7] Van Donkelaar et al 2 does not dispute the fact that ATD reduces 5-HT synthesis and brain 5-HT levels. 4 Their arguments converge on two issues.…”