Showing papers by "Clemens Kirschbaum published in 2004"
TL;DR: The observed ACTH response patterns in young and elderly adults may suggest that a heightened hypothalamic drive in young men decreases with age, resulting in similar ACTH responses in elderly men and women, as well as a greater adrenal cortex sensitivity to ACTH signals in young females.
789 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that comparable HPA axis and heart rate stress responses to psychosocial stress can be measured in the morning and afternoon and the finding that the TSST-induced mood change was differentially affected by time of day requires further exploration.
545 citations
TL;DR: It is shown here that sAA activity is increased by acute psychosocial stress and that increases in sAA correlate with increases in norepinephrine, and that it exhibits a stable circadian pattern that mirrors that of salivary cortisol.
Abstract: Assessment of sympathoadrenal medullary system (SAM) activity is only possible to date via measurement of catecholamines in blood plasma or via electrophysiological methods. Both ways of measurement are restricted to endocrinological or psychophysiological laboratories, as both require either immediate freezing of blood samples or complex recording devices. Efforts have therefore been undertaken to find a method comparable to salivary cortisol measurements, in which noninvasive samples can be taken at any place and stored at room temperature for sufficient time before later analysis in the laboratory. Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) is a candidate that may prove useful in this context. We show here that sAA activity is increased by acute psychosocial stress (Trier Social Stress Test) and that increases in sAA correlate with increases in norepinephrine. We further report that sAA exhibits a stable circadian pattern that mirrors that of salivary cortisol. In conclusion, the current data show that salivary alpha-amylase may serve as an easy-to-use index for SAM activity. However, some questions remain to be answered; for example, what impact does salivary flow rate exert on stress-induced sAA activity?
509 citations
TL;DR: The results indicate that the cortisol awakening response occurs on both work and non-work days, but that anticipation of the working day is associated with an enhanced response.
470 citations
TL;DR: In refugees with PTSD, hypocortisolism is associated with increased GC sensitivity of immunologic tissues, whether this pattern reflects an adaptive mechanism and whether this is sufficient to protect from detrimental effects of low cortisol remains to be investigated.
381 citations
TL;DR: Self-report of compliance in a salivary cortisol sampling protocol substantially overestimates actual compliance in the absence of objective monitoring, resulting in cortisol data that significantly differs from compliant data.
266 citations
TL;DR: This reanalysis revealed differential heart rate responses and recovery after exposition to the Trier Social Stress Test in healthy children, younger adults, and elderly adults.
Abstract: In addition to numerous reports about psychophysiological stress responses to acute stressors, there are few data available on gender differences of stress-induced heart rate responses in multiple age groups applying the same psychological stressor. Second, the assessment of poststress recovery appears to be neglected in the empirical literature. For this study, data from 5 independent studies were reanalyzed to investigate the impact of age and gender on heart rate responses and poststress recovery to a standardized psychosocial stress task (Trier Social Stress Test; TSST) in 28 children, 34 younger adults, and 26 older adults.
257 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that work stress and SES are related differently to cortisol responses to waking and cortisol output over the day, while job demands are more relevant for women.
249 citations
TL;DR: Hippocampal damage in humans abolishes the cortisol response to awakening, whereas the remainder of the diurnal cycle is unaffected in these patients, suggesting a unique role of the HC in the control of basal cortisol secretion.
201 citations
TL;DR: The present study shows that in a sample with a large range of awakening times, an impact of this variable on the cortisol awakening response can be observed, and suggests that waking up per se is insufficient for adrenocortical stimulation.
187 citations
TL;DR: Cortisol responses to waking were positively associated with overcommitment in men, and chronic neuroendocrine and cardiovascular activation may mediate in part the impact of over Commitment to work on cardiovascular disease risk in men.
Abstract: Objective To assess the biological correlates of effort-reward imbalance and overcommitment to work using measurements over the working day. Methods Participants were 197 working men and women aged 45 to 59 years, recruited from the Whitehall II epidemiological cohort. Salivary cortisol was sampled on waking, 30 minutes later, and then at 2-hour intervals from 8:00 hours to 22:00 hours. Blood pressure was measured every 20 minutes using ambulatory methods. Effort-reward imbalance and overcommitment to work were assessed with standard questionnaires. Results Cortisol responses to waking were positively associated with overcommitment in men, with mean increases between waking and 30 minutes of 14.5 and 4.2 nmol/l in high and low overcommitment groups, after adjustment for age, socioeconomic position, smoking, time of waking up, and job demands. Cortisol averaged from 8 samples over the working day was also related to overcommitment in men, with an average difference of 22% between high and lower overcommitment groups. Overcommitment predicted systolic blood pressure over the day in men after adjustment for age, smoking, body mass index, physical activity, and job control, with adjusted means of 132.2 and 125.8 mm Hg in high and low overcommitment groups. There was a significant interaction between overcommitment, socioeconomic position, and time of day in men (p =.016), because systolic pressure was higher in lower status overcommitted men, and rose over the day. Neither effort-reward imbalance nor overcommitment predicted biological responses in women. Conclusions Chronic neuroendocrine and cardiovascular activation may mediate in part the impact of overcommitment to work on cardiovascular disease risk in men.
TL;DR: Future ERP studies need to be more attentive to the issue of menstrual phase when studying female subjects or female patients, as changes in auditory ERPs across the menstrual cycle with the most prominent changes occurring during the luteal phase are documents.
TL;DR: Although men and women exhibited similar hormonal responses to opioid receptor blockade, women reported less pain and showed smaller blood pressure responses during CPT, suggesting differential effects of the endogenous opioid system on pain perception and blood pressure in men andWomen.
Abstract: Objective Sex differences in pain sensitivity and stress reactivity have been well documented. Little is known about the role of the endogenous opioid system in these differences. This study was conducted to compare adrenocortical, pain sensitivity, and blood pressure responses to opioid blockade using naltrexone in men and women. Methods Twenty-six participants completed 2 sessions during which placebo or 50 mg of naltrexone was administered, using a double-blind, counterbalanced design. Thermal pain threshold and heat tolerance were assessed. Participants also rated pain during a 90-second cold pressor test (CPT) and completed the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) after each pain challenge. Blood and saliva samples and cardiovascular and mood measures were obtained throughout the sessions. Results Plasma cortisol, adrenocorticotropin, beta endorphin, prolactin, and salivary cortisol levels increased similarly in men and women after naltrexone administration compared with placebo. Women reported more pain during both pain procedures and had lower thermal pain tolerance. In response to naltrexone, women exhibited reduced blood pressure responses and reduced MPQ pain ratings after CPT. No effects of naltrexone on these measures were found in men. Conclusions Although men and women exhibited similar hormonal responses to opioid receptor blockade, women reported less pain and showed smaller blood pressure responses during CPT. Results suggest differential effects of the endogenous opioid system on pain perception and blood pressure in men and women.
TL;DR: Two recent studies observed that cortisol impaired retrieval and that emotional valence influenced these effects, and the impairing effects were stronger for neutral than for emotional items, whereas for word retrieval the opposite pattern was observed.
Abstract: Glucocorticoids secreted in response to stress modulate memory in animals and humans. Studies in rodents suggest that glucocorticoids enhance memory consolidation but impair delayed retrieval. Similar negative effects on memory retrieval have been reported in humans. The human studies so far have not addressed the issue of emotional valence, which conceivably could modulate the effects of cortisol on retrieval. The present mini-review discusses two recent studies from our laboratories that investigate the influence of emo- tional valence on the retrieval-impairing effects of cortisol. Both studies observed that cortisol impaired retrieval and that emotional valence influ- enced these effects. For autobiographical memory the impairing effects were stronger for neutral than for emotional items, whereas for word retrieval the opposite pattern was observed (stronger effects on emotional words). Possible reasons for these results are the different memory domains tested as well as the different sex of the subjects. Future studies will address these issues, which are of relevance for psychiatric disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder or major depression.
TL;DR: A higher cortisol level after sleep deprivation might transiently improve negative feedback to the hypothalamus or interact with other neurotransmitter systems, thus mediating or contributing to the clinical response, as well as suggesting that the short-term effects of antidepressant treatments on the HPA axis may differ from their long- term effects.
Abstract: Objective: One night of sleep deprivation induces a transient improvement in about 60% of depressed patients. Since depression is associated with abnormalities of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the authors measured cortisol secretion before, during, and after therapeutic sleep deprivation for 1 night. Method: Fifteen unmedicated depressed inpatients participated in a combined polysomnographic and endocrine study. Blood was sampled at 30-minute intervals during 3 consecutive nights before, during, and after sleep deprivation. Saliva samples were collected at 30-minute intervals during the daytime before and after the sleep deprivation night. Results: During the night of sleep deprivation, cortisol levels were significantly higher than at baseline. During the daytime, cortisol levels during the first half of the day were higher than at baseline in the patients who responded to sleep deprivation but not in the nonresponders. During recovery sleep, cortisol secretion returned to baseline values. Conclusions: This study demonstrated a significant stimulatory effect of 1 night of sleep deprivation on the HPA axis in unmedicated depressed patients. The results suggest that the short-term effects of antidepressant treatments on the HPA axis may differ from their long-term effects. A higher cortisol level after sleep deprivation might transiently improve negative feedback to the hypothalamus or interact with other neurotransmitter systems, thus mediating or contributing to the clinical response. The fast return to baseline values coincides with the short clinical effect.