Behavioral Sciences Laboratories, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 921 NE 13th Street,Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA.
Biol Psychiatry. 2012 Feb 15;71(4):344-9. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.10.018. Epub 2011 Nov 23.
Can stressful events in early life alter the response characteristics of the human stress axis? Individual differences in stress reactivity are considered potentially important in long-term health and disease; however, little is known about the sources of these individual differences. We present evidence that adverse experience in childhood and adolescence can alter core components of the stress axis, including cortisol and heart rate reactivity.
We exposed 354 healthy young adults (196 women) to public speaking and mental arithmetic stressors in the laboratory. Stress responses were indexed by self-report, heart rate, and cortisol levels relative to measures on a nonstress control day. Subjects were grouped into those who had experienced 0, 1, or 2 or more significant adverse life events, including Physical or Sexual Adversity (mugged, threatened with a weapon, experienced a break-in or robbery or raped or sexually assaulted by a relative or nonrelative) or Emotional Adversity (separation from biological mother or father for at least 6 months before age 15).
Experience of adversity predicted smaller heart rate and cortisol responses to the stressors in a dose-dependent fashion (0 > 1 > 2 or more events) (F values = 5.79 and 8.11, p values < .004) for both men and women. This was not explained by differences in socioeconomic status, the underlying cortisol diurnal cycle, or subjective experience during the stress procedure.
The results indicate a long-term impact of stressful life experience on the reactivity of the human stress axis.
早期生活中的压力事件是否会改变人类应激轴的反应特征？应激反应的个体差异被认为是长期健康和疾病的重要潜在因素；然而，对于这些个体差异的来源知之甚少。我们提供的证据表明，童年和青少年时期的不良经历会改变应激轴的核心组成部分，包括皮质醇和心率反应性。
我们让 354 名健康的年轻成年人（196 名女性）在实验室中经历演讲和心算压力源。应激反应通过自我报告、心率和皮质醇水平相对于非应激控制日的测量来评估。根据他们经历过的 0、1 或 2 次或更多次重大生活逆境事件的情况（包括身体或性虐待（被袭击、被武器威胁、经历入室盗窃或抢劫、被亲戚或非亲戚强奸或性侵犯）或情感逆境（在 15 岁之前与亲生父母分开至少 6 个月），将受试者分为三组。
以剂量依赖的方式（0 > 1 > 2 或更多事件）（男性和女性的 F 值分别为 5.79 和 8.11，p 值均<.004），经历逆境预测了应激源下心率和皮质醇反应较小。这不能用社会经济地位、皮质醇昼夜节律的差异或应激过程中的主观体验来解释。
结果表明，生活压力经历对人类应激轴的反应性有长期影响。
