Negative Cognitive Style and Cortisol Reactivity to a Laboratory Stressor: a Preliminary Study

Abstract

According to the hopelessness theory of depression, some individuals have a cognitive vulnerability (i.e., negative cognitive style) that interacts with stressful life events to produce depression. A negative cognitive style is associated with a maladaptive cognitive response to stress (i.e., increased negative attributions); however, no study has assessed whether this cognitive vulnerability is also associated with a maladaptive endocrine (e.g., cortisol) response to stress. If shown to be related, individual differences in cognitive style may potentially explain why the literature on the association between cortisol stress reactivity and depression is mixed, as cortisol responses to stress may vary as a function of attributional style. The aim of the present study was to provide a preliminary test of whether cognitive vulnerability was related to cortisol reactivity to an acute laboratory stressor among a sample of young adults (n = 20; M age = 23.1 years; 10 females). Negative cognitive style and depressive symptoms were assessed via the Cognitive Style Questionnaire and the Patient Health Questionnaire, respectively. All participants also completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Salivary cortisol was collected before, during, and after the TSST. Results showed a significant association between negative cognitive style and cortisol stress reactivity, such that a greater negative cognitive style was related to a larger cortisol response to the TSST. Post hoc analyses revealed that this association was moderated by gender (i.e., effect observed in males only). Cortisol responses to the TSST, in general, were lower among females, but this relationship was not moderated by cognitive style. These findings may be related to underlying gender differences in stress vulnerability, which may have clinical implications for understanding the interactive effect of cognitive and neuroendocrine processes on vulnerability and resiliency to depression.

El registro electroencefalográfico y el cortisol salival en el estudio del estrés: una revisión sistemática

“…Entre los factores estimuladores de la reactividad del cortisol al estrés se encuentran las expectativas sobre lo que sucederá durante un evento estresante (Straup et al, 2019), el sexo (pues la reactividad del cortisol es mayor en los hombres que en mujeres [Bedini et al, 2017;Guevara y Murdock, 2019;Manigault et al, 2019;Vargas et al, 2020], tener un trabajo profesional demandante (Bedini et al, 2017;Tavares et al, 2017), el estado de salud y el peso corporal (Tavares et al, 2017). Por el contrario, se señalan como amortiguadores los procesos de habituación y el desarrollo de estrategias individuales ante las condiciones estresantes (Bachmann et al, 2019), tener una mentalidad orientada a objetivos, una actitud positiva ante los retos (Hogue, 2019(Hogue, , 2020, rasgos de personalidad de búsqueda de sensaciones (Frenkel et al, 2019), intimidad con la pareja (Ditzen et al, 2019) o consumo de sustancias como cannabis (Cuttler et al, 2017).…”

Investigating and treating psychosocial risk factors in depression: An integrative summary.

“…It is also important to point out that although the focus of this book was on different individual risk factors, this does not imply that these variables do not interact with other biological, psychological, and social risk factors in complex ways (Alba & Calvette, 2019;Gotlib et al, 2020;Hammen & Gotlib, 2014;Hankin, 2012) or that risk can only be treated with psychosocial interventions. Indeed, the field is increasingly moving toward more complex biopsychosocial models of risk of depression that integrate these variables (e.g., De Raedt & Koster, 2010; Disner et al, 2011;Vargas et al, 2020). We hope that this book provides readers with both the research evidence and set of techniques to intervene at the level of the underlying mechanism and obtain a better understanding of how a given treatment technique alters different risk factors for depression.…”

“…The biological, psychological, and social risk factors that are associated with (and, in some cases, causally related to) depression are incredibly complex and interact in dynamic and reciprocal ways (Alba & Calvete, 2019;Fried & Robinaugh, 2020;Herrman et al, 2022;Kendler, 2019;Masten & Cicchetti, 2010). Although isolated risk factors continue to be studied and add importantly to our understanding of the development and maintenance of depression, the field is moving toward more sophisticated research strategies to test more complex mechanisms and processes that trigger depression onset and relapse (e.g., Backs-Dermott et al, 2010;De Raedt & Koster, 2010;Disner et al, 2011;Hankin & Abramson, 2001;Ingram et al, 2011Ingram et al, , 2014Vargas et al, 2020).…”

Revisión sistemática: el cortisol salival, un biomarcador de estrés

“…Otras formas de producir estrés fueron una competencia deportiva (Mehrsafar et al, 2020;Park et al, 2020;Roberts et al, 2019); la prueba de estrés agudo de Maastricht (Maastricht Acute Stress Test [MAST]) (Cuttler et al, 2017;Smeets et al, 2018;Maeda, 2022); la prueba de presión fría (Cold Pressor Test [CPT]) de forma simultánea a la tarea de adición serial auditiva estimulada (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task [PASAT]) (Bachmann et al, 2019); un turno de trabajo de llamadas de emergencia de vida o muerte (Bedini et al, 2017); una sesión de quimioterapia (Black et al, 2017); la prueba de esfuerzo específica para deportes de riesgo de Heidelberg (Heidelberg Risk Sport-Specific Stress Test [HRSST]) (Frenkel et al, 2019); un protocolo de malabarismo instructivo que involucra el ego (Ego-involving instructional juggling) (Hogue et al, 2019(Hogue et al, , 2020; un debate con un entrevistador muy poco comprensivo (Straup et al, 2019); y un video aversivo con descargas eléctricas aleatorias (Zhu et al, 2020). En promedio, tomaron 5.4 muestras de saliva, desde doce (Vargas et al, 2020) hasta una sola por paciente a lo largo del estudio (Zhu et al, 2020). En su mayoría, las muestras se hicieron durante la tarde, entre las 12:00 pm y las 8:30 pm.…”