Psychoneuroendocrinology
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Jan 2015
Cortisol levels in former preterm children at school age are predicted by neonatal procedural pain-related stress.
Early life stress can alter hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis function. Differences in cortisol levels have been found in preterm infants exposed to substantial procedural stress during neonatal intensive care, compared to infants born full-term, but only a few studies investigated whether altered programming of the HPA axis persists past toddler age. Further, there is a dearth of knowledge of what may contribute to these changes in cortisol. ⋯ Importantly, in the preterm group, greater neonatal procedural pain-related stress (adjusted for morphine) was associated with lower cortisol levels on the study day (p=.044) and lower diurnal cortisol at home (p=.023), with effects found primarily in boys. In addition, child attention problems were negatively, and thought problems were positively, associated with the cortisol response during cognitive assessment on the study day in preterm children. Our findings suggest that neonatal pain/stress contributes to altered HPA axis function up to school-age in children born very preterm, and that sex may be an important factor.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Jan 2015
Randomized Controlled TrialProgesterone and mental imagery interactively predict emotional memories.
Different lines of research suggest that the consolidation of emotional memories is influenced by (a) endogenous levels of sex hormones, and (b) individual differences in the capacity to use vivid mental imagery. No studies to date have investigated how these factors may interact to influence declarative emotional memories. This study examined the interacting influence of progesterone and mental imagery strength on emotional memory consolidation. ⋯ Two days later, all participants returned for a surprise free recall memory test. The interaction of progesterone and mental imagery strength significantly predicted recall of visually processed, but not verbally processed, negative images. These data suggest that mental imagery strength may be one mechanism underlying the documented association between endogenous progesterone and enhanced emotional memory performance in the literature.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Jan 2015
Conditioned fear and extinction learning performance and its association with psychiatric symptoms in active duty Marines.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a major public health concern, especially given the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nevertheless, despite a sharp increase in the incidence of psychiatric disorders in returning veterans, empirically based prevention strategies are still lacking. To develop effective prevention and treatment strategies, it is necessary to understand the underlying biological mechanisms contributing to PTSD and other trauma related symptoms. ⋯ These data are consistent with the idea that safety signal discrimination is a relatively specific marker of PTSD symptoms compared to general anxiety and depression symptoms. Further research is needed to determine if deficits in fear inhibition vs. exaggerated fear responding are separate biological "domains" across anxiety disorders that may predict differential biological mechanisms and possibly treatment needs. Future longitudinal analyses will examine whether poor learning of safety signals provides a marker of vulnerability to develop PTSD or is specific to symptom state.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Jan 2015
Intra-individual psychological and physiological responses to acute laboratory stressors of different intensity.
The phenomenon of stress is understood as a multidimensional concept which can be captured by psychological and physiological measures. There are various laboratory stress protocols which enable stress to be investigated under controlled conditions. However, little is known about whether these protocols differ with regard to the induced psycho-physiological stress response pattern. ⋯ These findings suggest that different stress protocols differentially stimulate various aspects of the stress response. Physically demanding stress protocols such as the Ergometer test appear to be particularly suitable for evoking autonomic stress responses, whereas uncontrollable and social-evaluative threatening stressors (such as the TSST) are most likely to elicit HPA axis stress responses. The results of this study may help researchers in deciding which stress protocol to use, depending on the individual research question.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Jan 2015
Psychobiological stress response to a simulated school shooting in police officers.
Police work is one of the most demanding professions with various sources of high occupational stress. Among the most demanding tasks are amok situations, such as school shootings. Hardly anything is known about endocrine and cardiovascular markers in safety professionals during emergency situations in real life and how this relates to stress perception and management. This study will therefore explore police officers' stress responses to a reality-based school shooting simulation assessing neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and psychological stress markers. ⋯ Autonomic but not endocrine stress markers increased to a simulated school shooting, which were further related to the subjective experience of the simulation. Our results provide a more in-depth picture of stress responses in such situations, which will in the long run raise the possibility to refine training programs, design more effective stress-management strategies for these critical incidents, and improve performance but also coping with work-related stress.