Effects of childhood trauma on the cortisol and testosterone stress response are mediated by life history strategy

Zakreski, Ellen; Pruessner, Jens C.

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.12.084

Cited by 4 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…However, our findings revealed positive HPAHPG associations, and we revealed that the relationship between SS and testosterone reactivity remained significant even with cortisol in the model, indicating that our contextual meaning of skydiving is more likely to be challenging situation, stimulating a testosterone response (Wobber et al, 2010). Moreover, our findings support a "coupling" model where the HPA and HPG axis positively moderate one another, and extends the subset of that literature that examines acute reactivity Phan et al, 2017;Zakreski & Pruessner, 2019) to skydiving.…”

Section: Cortisol and Testosterone Response To Skydivingsupporting

confidence: 76%

Testosterone reactivity and reward-related brain activation in social dominance

Lee¹

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Section: Cortisol and Testosterone Response To Skydivingsupporting

confidence: 76%

Testosterone reactivity and reward-related brain activation in social dominance

Lee¹

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“…Children who experience high levels of unpredictability learn to focus on short-term rather than long-term rewards (Frankenhuis & Nettle, 2020 ; Frankenhuis et al, 2016 ) and this focus can cause people who were exposed to unpredictable childhood environments to make impulsive decisions (Ellis et al, 2012 ; Hartman et al, 2018 ; Martinez et al, 2022 ), and to engage in health risk behaviors such as substance use (Doom et al, 2016 ; Simpson et al, 2012 ), risky sexual behavior (Ellis et al, 2012 ), and unhealthy dietary choices (Maner et al, 2017 ). Neuroendocrine pathways include influences on corticolimbic circuitry (Gee & Cohodes, 2021 ; Liu & Fisher, 2022 ) and the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis (Zakreski & Pruessner, 2019 ), chronic alterations of which are associated with chronic disease risk, anxiety, and mortality (Schoorlemmer et al, 2009 ). Future work would benefit from assessing more directly the pathways through which childhood unpredictability may affect adult health outcomes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of childhood unpredictability in adult health

et al. 2022

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This research differentiated childhood unpredictability (i.e., perceptions of uncertainty or instability due to turbulent environmental changes) from other related constructs to identify its role in adult health. Study 1 (N = 441) showed that, beyond other childhood adversity variables (poverty and adverse childhood experiences or ACEs) and demographic characteristics, perceptions of unpredictability were associated with greater functional disability and worse health-related quality of life (assessed via the CDC’s HRQOL Healthy Days measure and the RAND SF-36). Study 2 (N = 564) replicated those findings in a more racially diverse sample and showed that associations with childhood unpredictability held while also controlling for the Big 5 personality traits. Findings suggest that effects of unpredictability were especially pronounced among Hispanic (in Study 1), and Black/African American and low-income participants (in Study 2). Experiencing childhood environments that are perceived to be uncertain, unstable, or uncontrollable may put children on a path toward poor health outcomes in adulthood. Findings advance theories of child adversity and health and identify childhood unpredictability as a potentially valuable target for intervention. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10865-022-00373-8.

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“…Thus, we wanted to explore whether ELA and MS, both representing adverse conditions that signal premature mortality or death, might trigger similar processes and subsequent biobehavioral response (e.g., HPA axis hyporesponsivity). That is, acute MS might temporarily mimic the enduring effects of chronic early-life stress (i.e., cortisol hyporesponsivity) in low ELA individuals (Zakreski, 2020). First support for the proposed interplay between MS and ELA derives from previous work, pointing to high conceptual similarities between both constructs.…”

Section: Ela Mortality Salience and Hpa Axis Reactivitymentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Though MS is theorized to also affect physiological systems (Jonas et al, 2014;Tritt et al, 2012), empirical work regarding the effect of MS on ANS and particularly HPA axis activation is scarce (e.g., Buttlar et al, 2020). First evidence suggests that MS might affect HPA axis responses to subsequent stress (Byrd-Craven et al, 2016;Byrd-Craven et al, 2015;Zakreski, 2020), indicated by reduced cortisol responses to a social stress task in males who had contemplated death (MS) compared to dental pain (CS) (Byrd-Craven et al, 2015). This implies that MS can affect subsequent HPA axis stress responses in healthy samples.…”

Section: Mortality Salience and Hpa Axis Reactivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of mortality salience and early-life maternal care on neuroendocrine, autonomic, and psychological stress responses

Bentele,

Strobel,

Meier

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Adverse early-life experiences alter the regulation of major stress systems such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Low early-life maternal care (MC) has repeatedly been related to blunted cortisol responses to stress. Likewise, an acutely increased awareness of mortality (mortality salience, MS) also has been shown to blunt cortisol responses. In the current study we investigated the effects of early-life MC and a potential interaction with MS on HPA axis responsivity, as well as autonomic and subjective stress responses. Seventy-three women (Mage=21.56, SDage=2.85) with self-reported low (n=30) or high (n=43) early-life MC, underwent the Trier Social Stress Test for groups. Prior to stressor exposure they were asked to briefly reflect either on death (mortality condition, n=38) or sleep (control condition, n=35). Salivary cortisol and alpha amylase, heart rate variability and subjective stress levels were assessed throughout the experiment. Multilevel mixed models confirmed an effect of MC on stress system regulation, indicated by blunted cortisol stress responses and overall reduced heart rate variability in low compared with high MC individuals. Moreover, we found an interaction between MS and MC concerning subjective stress levels and changes in heart rate variability. These findings demonstrate the impact of low early-life MC and the potential role of acute mortality primes on the regulation of stress systems in healthy women. Results further imply a superiority of multisystemic approaches to capture and investigate the extensive consequences of exposure to early-life adversity.

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Effects of childhood trauma on the cortisol and testosterone stress response are mediated by life history strategy

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Testosterone reactivity and reward-related brain activation in social dominance

Testosterone reactivity and reward-related brain activation in social dominance

The role of childhood unpredictability in adult health

The effect of mortality salience and early-life maternal care on neuroendocrine, autonomic, and psychological stress responses

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